INTRODUCTION 



In March of 1978, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and 

 Conservation (DNRC) entered into an agreement with Dreyer Brothers, Inc. 

 to conduct a long-term wildlife monitoring study of the Circle West 

 area, McCone County, Montana (Appendix A). This monitoring study is 

 essentially a continuation of the Circle West Wildlife Baseline Study 

 (WBS), 1978 (Circle West Technical Report No. 2). However, where the 

 baseline study was intended to provide data required by the DNRC relative 

 to siting and evaluation of a coal conversion facility, as well as data 

 required by the Montana Department of State Lands (DSL) pursuant to 

 the Strip Mine Siting and Strip Mine Reclamation Acts and pertaining 

 to the actual coal mine, the monitoring study was designed solely 

 to meet the requirements of DSL. „Field effort was, therefore, limited 

 primarily to the 174.3 km^ (99 mi^) Mine Study Area (referred to here- 

 after simply as "the study area") described in the WBS; the only data 

 gathered outside this area were obtained on the roadside wildlife survey 

 control routes and incidentally during travel to and from the study area. 



The wildlife baseline study was designed to provide a description 

 of the wildlife resource of the study area as it exists before mining, 

 and to allow a priori prediction of the impact which may result from 

 the proposed mine. The long-term monitoring study was designed pri- 

 marily to document the nature and magnitude of actual impact and to 

 allow determination of the success of reclamation efforts in restoring 

 pre-mining conditions. Also, since wildlife populations fluctuate dra- 

 matically from year to year, and the one-year baseline study cannot measure 

 the magnitude and periodicity of such fluctuations as weather-related 

 changes and natural population cycles, the long-term monitoring study 

 provides an essential continuation and refinement of the baseline study. 



In order to document impacts, the monitoring study must be capable 

 of discriminating those changes attributable to the proposed develop- 

 ment from those reflecting natural variation; that is, it must be capable 

 of detecting a "signal" against the background "noise" of biological 

 systems. This may be done by measuring and comparing long-term changes 

 in species and community parameters for control (undisturbed) and exper- 

 imental (disturbed) areas. It is assumed that natural variations will 

 affect both types of sites similarly. Should experimental plots show a 

 significantly different long-term pattern of variation following dis- 

 turbance, that difference should be attributable to the disturbance. 



The plan of study for the monitoring program was approved by DSL 

 in March of 1978 (Appendix B) . It was designed to make maximum use 

 of the data collected during the baseline wildlife study and the methods 

 and techniques developed during this study. The approach taken involves 

 long-term sampling, both of areas on the proposed mining area (experimental 

 sites) and outside this area (control sites) in order that mine-related 

 changes may be distinguished from natural region-wide biological fluctuations, 



While administrative authority for the Circle West study has been 

 transferred from DNRC to DSL, DNRC is continuing to coordinate the wild- 

 life and vegetation monitoring studies. 



