communities dominated by non-game species. This represents an apparent shift 

 away from ame species/ which have traditionally been the emp asis of wild ife 

 study and the end product of management. Because sma 1 mammals such as mice 

 and ground squirrels are considered by some individuals as pests of J^tle val- 

 ue to mankind, some may question the expense of money and effort to study these 

 creatures These species, however, are vitally important to the integrity of 

 ecosystems which are of direct value to man. Small mammals, for example, play 

 a major environmental role by providing food for almost every vertebrate pred- 

 ator and by significantly altering vegetation (Korchgen 1952). Also, popula- 

 tions of individual species are subject to drastic cyclical or -^^"dom f uct- 

 uations which confound attempts to correlate land-use changes and POP^I^J^O" 

 changes. Community structure exhibits greater long-term stability than does 

 population structure,and community changes may thus be more effectively meas- 

 ured and related to disruptive impacts which affect many species than would 

 single-species population changes (Wiens and Dyer 1975:163) Thus, no compo- 

 nents of vertebrate communities were overlooked in this study, as a'' are 

 acknowledged to be essential to ecosystem structure and function. This is not 

 ?o say that game or other "featured" species such as raptors or endangered 

 species were given short shrift; on the contrary, these species were subject 

 to intensive autecological study in addition to determining their synecological 

 roles This dual approach should more clearly explain the role or importance 

 of each species in the grassland ecosystem far better than a piecemeal single- 

 species approach, or an approach studying game species only. 



A major consideration in study design was to provide data which would allow 

 both a priori prediction of impacts and a posteriori monitoring to measure 

 actual impacts. 



The approach employed in predicting impacts began by sampling an array of 

 habitats, including habitats similar to those likely to be produced by re- 

 clamation, to determine the species present and their population Parameters^ 

 Once these parameters are known for each habitat, then given the type of hab- 

 itat produced by reclamation the characteristics of communities occurring in 

 the reclaimed area can be predicted. For example, assume that the initial 

 sampling finds that habitat A contains species x,y, and z in a '^^^lo of l^-i-^ 

 and habitat B contains species x,y, and z in a ratio of 2:20.1. I J after re 

 clamation habitat A is replaced by habitat B, then the P^ed^c,t^°I,lJ° °^^,^,f,J 

 the ratio of species x,y, and z will go from 12:1:2 to 2:20:0. The assumption 

 underlying the validity of this approach is that the parameters measured in 

 each habitat are always characteristic of that habitat. This assumption will 

 be discussed later. 



A further refinement of impact prediction involves use of species-specific 

 habitat requirements. If the relationship is known between the type of habitats 

 produced by reclamation and the habitat requirements o^ each species, then the 

 species most likely to occupy a habitat produced by reclamation can be predicted. 



In order to monitor mine-related impacts, the use of an approach which 

 enables the observers to distinguish between naturally occurring changes and 

 changes related to mining or reclamation is mandatory. Merely documenting 

 changes on the mine site over a period of time is not adequate to distinguish 

 between changes relating to mining activity and tnose which would have occurred 

 even in the absence of mining activity. To determine the impact of mining and 



