Page 308 - Advances In Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

284 Advances in Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

habitat for both game and nongame wildlife, protect water quality in this mountainous
region, provide natural beauty, and produce other ecosystem services that are valued
by local residents. Conventional reclamation practices (use of unweathered mine
spoils for soil construction; “smooth grading” that compacts soils; revegetation with
agricultural grasses and heavy fertilization) generally produce land that is not condu-
cive to re-establishment of forested ecosystems [58]. These lands often become occu-
pied by plant communities that include dominance by nonnative species [59].
To improve reforestation success in Appalachia, a new reclamation method called
the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) has been developed [60–62]. The FRA is
being widely applied by operating mines in Appalachia for the purpose of
re-establishing forest vegetation. Although the FRA is intended for use in the eastern
USA, similar methods are being developed for use in other mining regions [63]. The
FRA comprises five steps, each of which must be executed in order to ensure success-
ful reforestation.
FRA Step 1: Create a suitable rooting medium for good tree growth that is no less than four
feet deep and comprises topsoil, weathered sandstone, and/or the best available material.
The surface growth medium will influence survival and growth of planted trees and
colonization by native vegetation. When available, native soil should be salvaged and
respread and include organic materials from the premining area such as roots, stumps,
and other organic debris. When possible, the soil should be excavated, hauled to rec-
lamation areas, and respread immediately. If soils are not available, weathered non-
pyritic overburden will generally be more favorable for trees than unweathered spoils.
Most Appalachian native hardwoods prefer soils with pHs in the 5.0–6.5 range. Some
tree species can grow with pHs in the 4–5 range, but soil pH >7.0 limits the establish-
ment and growth of many native Appalachian trees [31,62]. If soil and/or unweathered
spoils are available, but not in adequate quantities, they may be mixed with
unweathered spoils that have moderately acidic pH and soluble salts to produce a
growth medium that will be more favorable to tree establishment.
FRA Step 2: Loosely grade the topsoil or topsoil substitutes established in Step 1 to create a
noncompacted soil growth medium.
The rough soil surface left by loose grading aids forest re-establishment by allowing
water infiltration, offering little resistance to root growth, and aiding volunteer estab-
lishment by providing features to hold seeds carried by wind and wildlife to the mine
site. Conversely, dense soils produced by conventional smooth-grading practices
impede root growth and hinder water infiltration and soil-air exchange. Small equip-
ment may be used to grade soils only as needed to achieve the desired surface config-
uration. Even then, rough soil condition should be left and grading operations should be
conducted only during dry soil conditions. This will produce mine soils with physical
properties that are favorable for trees [64]. Soils with loose, rough, uneven surfaces, pre-
pared using these methods, will enable more rapid water infiltration, and thus will pro-
duce less runoff and will be more resistant to erosion than conventional mine soils with
smooth surfaces, even when groundcover revegetation develops slowly. Once soil con-
struction is complete, vehicles should not enter reclamation areas.