Excepts from the link provided:
"(b) The application shall include a mining plan and reclamation plan dealing with the extent to which the mining operation will disturb or change the lands to be affected, the proposed future use or uses and the plan whereby the operator will reclaim the affected lands to the proposed future use or uses. The mining plan and reclamation plan shall be consistent with the objectives and purposes of this act and of the rules and regulations promulgated. The mining plan and reclamation plan shall include the following:"
"vii) In administering established rules and regulations on such standards the administrator shall consider all the facts and circumstances bearing upon any reclamation plan. In consideration of reclamation plans for any mining operation that is presently being conducted in the state under a permit issued by the state land commission under the "Open Cut Land Reclamation Act of 1969", particular attention shall be paid to:
(A) The social and economic value of the product mined;
(B) The technological availability for economic feasibility of reclaiming the affected area.
(viii) Establishing methods of estimating cost of reclamation which shall be computed according to established engineering methods;"
(a) The council shall, upon recommendation by the advisory board through the administrator and the director, establish rules and regulations pursuant to the following reclamation standards for the affected areas, including but not limited to:
(i) The highest previous use of the affected lands, the surrounding terrain and natural vegetation, surface and subsurface flowing or stationary water bodies, wildlife and aquatic habitat and resources, and acceptable uses after reclamation including the utility and capacity of the reclaimed lands to support such uses;
(ii) Backfilling, regrading or recontouring to assure the reclamation of the land to a use at least equal to its highest previous use;
Let'sparse out the phrase from the quote just above; "reclamation of the land to a use at least equal to its highest previous use."
First: It doesn't say equal to the same use, but instead leaves us just with the term equal. In the case of the rattlesnake hills what are its uses? As an excercise I'll guess at a few: open range grazing, hunting, hiking. So then what use might be determined as equal to the highest of those--and most importantly equal in what measure pleasure, economics? Certainly open range grazing is an economic measure whereas hiking is a personal and subjective measure. Let's take open range and its economic measure.
How many head of cattle does one acre of wyoming hilly range land support and what is the value of those cattle? Let's understand the tailing, drill pads, roads and so forth came be reclaimed and planted with native vegetations. Though the value of the road to ranchers and hunters may be deemed of greater value than for those purposes than for the amount of cattle fee they may support. This still leaves the question of the open pits and/ or underground portals.
Portals can be sealed and their surface area is very small or the basic question goes back to reclamation of the open pit (s). As I the debate at this is beyond my abilites to foresee and know and I would be debating myself anyway, I'll leave it with a vison of cattle grazing on the reclaimed terraces of the sides of an open pit and the reference to "future uses" found above.
In sum: It's clear as mud, but as they say, it covers the ground.
