Illinois Administrative Code › Title 62 - MINING › Part 1817 - PERMANENT PROGRAM PERFORMANCE STANDARDS - UNDERGROUND MINING OPERATIONS › Section 1817.117 - Revegetation: Tree, Shrub, and Herbaceous Vegetation

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) For areas to be developed for fish and
			 wildlife habitat (including shelter belts), recreation, or forest products land
			 uses, success of vegetation shall be determined on the basis of tree and shrub
			 population and vegetative ground cover. Such parameters are described as
			 follows:
1) Trees and shrubs that will be used
			 in determining the success of vegetation and the adequacy of plant arrangement
			 shall have utility for the approved post-mining land use. Tree and/or shrub
			 population shall be considered successful if it meets the population required
			 in subsection (b) with 90% statistical confidence (i.e., one-sided t test with
			 a 0.10 alpha error) during the
			 fifth year of the responsibility period or later in the responsibility period.
			 On lands eligible for remining, the period of responsibility shall be 2 full
			 years. Trees and shrubs counted in determining such success shall be healthy,
			 e.g., not demonstrating abnormal growth, coloring, leaf drop or disease. At the
			 time of bond release such trees and shrubs shall be alive, and shall have been
			 in place for at least 3 growing seasons, i.e., 3 years. On lands eligible for
			 remining, trees and shrubs need not have been in place for 3 years; however,
			 such trees and shrubs shall not be counted in determining success during the
			 same calendar year in which they were planted.
2) Vegetative ground cover shall not be less
			 than required to achieve the approved post-mining land use and shall be
			 adequate to control erosion and shall not be less than 70% during the last year
			 of the responsibility period.
3)
			 Permanent roads, parking lots and similar impervious structures on the
			 revegetated area shall not require the planting of trees and shrubs or
			 herbaceous ground cover. Erosion control structures, including pond
			 embankments, shall not require the planting of trees and shrubs.
4) For purposes of this Section, herbaceous
			 species means grasses, legumes and nonleguminous forbs; woody plants means
			 woody shrubs, trees and vines; and ground cover means the area of ground
			 covered by the combined aboveground parts of vegetation and the litter that is
			 produced naturally on site.
5) For
			 purposes of this Section, normal husbandry and conservation practices shall
			 include pruning, disease, pest, vermin and herbaceous vegetation control
			 including mowing, replanting and rill and gully repairs. The replanting of
			 trees and shrubs in areas described in Section
			 1817.116(a)(2)(C)
			 shall be limited to 20% of the original approved planting rate during the first
			 year of the responsibility period and 10% of the original approved planting
			 rate during the second year of the responsibility period. The repair of rills
			 and gullies shall be limited to those approved as a normal conservation
			 practice under Section
			 1817.116(a)(2)(C), (D) and
			 (E).