Revegetation - OSM Technology Transfer - Office of Surface Mining

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elocated. Location, establishment, and maintenance of reference areas for each vegetation community disturbed or affected was no longer a viable option for determining revegetation success criteria. An evaluation of technical standard and historic record approaches to establishing revegetation success criteria for total vegetation cover and herbaceous production was undertaken. Meetings and discussions with CDMG yielded agreement on a site-specific historic record approach to establishing revegetation success criteria for cover and herbaceous production based on a reasonable expectation of the vegetation community to be established after reclamation. MCC and CDMG selected a vegetation community in the immediate vicinity of the mine that closely approximated the biologic composition and character of a post-mine plant community as well as the physical characteristics of the affected areas of the mine. Reconnaissance of the mine site and adjacent areas under the mines control revealed three locations characteristic of early seral stage vegetation communities. After collaboration and on-site inspections, one site was selected. This vegetation community was an abandoned homestead and pasture area surrounded by the native oakbrush, mountain shrub and sagebrush communities above the existing facilities area. The vegetation community and physical characteristics of the site (slope, aspect, drainage patterns) closely approximated the anticipated character of the reclaimed landscape and vegetation community. Use of historic records to generate revegetation success criteria has always been based on obtaining a representation of the range of parameter values for the historic record community. This meant quantitatively sampling a range of environmental conditions that would affect the vegetation parameters. As the physical characteristics of the site selected were very similar to those of the disturbed areas of the mine, the significant apparent variable was moisture, or precipitation regime. In order to obtain a representative record of the variability of the microclimate of the area, and therefore the effect on vegetation growth, it was determined that three years representing the variability of precipitation to be encountered at the site would comprise the historic record. For the purposes of the historic record; one low, one average, and one high precipitation year would be represented, based on precipitation records from a weather recording station in the area. Precipitation data over a ninety-year period was analyzed to specify a precipitation regime range. From the historic precipitation records, a "normal" precipitation regime (in inches of precipitation) was developed based on the amount of precipitation received during the eight months preceding the growing season (October through May). The months comprising the precipitation regime were selected as those months during which precipitation would most likely have a significant effect on the following growing season's vegetation. Serendipitously, these months also corresponded with the period of the majority of precipitation at the mine. Determination of the year type (low, average, or high) was made based on the precipitation sum preceding the
growing season. Low and high precipitation years were defined as years where the precipitation sum differed by approximately 23 percent (one standard deviation) or more from the average precipitation sum for the October-May time period. After the selection of the historic record vegetation community within the historic record study area in concert with CDMG, the selected area was initially quantitatively sampled for four vegetation parameters during 1996; vegetation cover, herbaceous production, species composition, and woody plant numbers. Additionally, the soil characteristics of the selected area were quantitatively analyzed and evaluated. Results: 1996-1998 Quantitative sampling of the historic record vegetation community took place in 1996, 1997, and 1998. The precipitation regime in 1996 was characterized as dry, 1997 was normal by definition, and 1998 was intermediate between 1996 and 1997. The historic record vegetation community was selected because of a close resemblance (location, elevation, aspect, soils, and vegetation community structure) to the dry meadow herbaceous vegetation community present within the West Elk Mine permit area (Savage and Savage, 1996b, 1997a). The dry meadow community was sampled in 1982 (baseline) and the dry meadow reference area was sampled in 1982 and 1995 (Mountain Coal Company, 1997, Savage and Savage, 1995a). While the dry meadow community is no longer being quantitatively sampled, it is productive to compare observations made at the historic record vegetation community to those from the dry meadow community and dry meadow reference area within Sylvester Gulch. Table 2 provides a comparison of the sampled parameters for the dry meadow community, dry meadow reference area, and the historic record vegetation community from the years 1982 through 1998. A Predictive Model: An Unexpected Benefit Figure 1 depicts the relationship between total vegetation cover and total herbaceous production and precipitation regime in the historic record vegetation community (HRSA), the dry meadow community (DM) and the dry meadow reference area (DMRA). Five years of data from the three communities illustrates distinct relationships directly related to the precipitation regime. With three years of data, it appears that the communities have characteristics that warrant separating them into individual units. The historic record vegetation community total vegetation cover and total herbaceous production values vary significantly from those of the dry meadow community and dry meadow reference area. Though the range of precipitation values does not correspond exactly, it is apparent that the historic record vegetation community has total vegetation cover values slightly higher than those of the dry meadow community and dry meadow reference area. Total herbaceous production values in the historic record vegetation community are much less than those recorded for the dry meadow community and dry meadow reference area.
Page 1 and 2: 2000 Billings Land Reclamation Symp
Page 3 and 4: ock layers, the topography of the r
Page 5 and 6: Table 1. Comparision of Reference A
Page 7: generally greater on the revegetate
Page 11 and 12: Table 2. Comparison of Vegetation P
Page 13 and 14: REFERENCES CEC. 1998. Coors Energy
Page 15 and 16: 2000 Billings Land Reclamation Symp
Page 17 and 18: METHODS Six mining companies submit
Page 19 and 20: NRCS derived standard. The NRCS der
Page 21 and 22: SUMMARY Production, diversity and s
Page 23 and 24: SUCCESSFUL RECLAMATION TECHNIQUES A
Page 25 and 26: May, 24, 1975 (LQD Rules and Regula
Page 27 and 28: Bond release requirements for the R
Page 29 and 30: The bond release area blended well
Page 31 and 32: y the planting of the native seed m
Page 33 and 34: References Final bond release crite
Page 35 and 36: It is familiar that many succession
Page 37: soils of the NA and PCT areas (Tabl
Page 40: In the SMT and NA areas, the correl
Page 43 and 44: All the grasses performed better on
Page 45 and 46: We believe that our findings relati
Page 47 and 48: for the life spans of the dominant
Page 49 and 50: INTRODUCTION Concern about the envi
Page 51 and 52: Following agreement on the systems
Page 53 and 54: land with respect to whether it is
Page 55 and 56: Environmental Concerns in Rights-of
Page 57 and 58: INTRODUCTION North Dakota enacted i
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eality by lessening the impact of a
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compared to show the relationship o
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the last quarter of the 19 th Centu
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DISCUSSION The PDSI has several adv
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Mock, C. J. 1991. Drought and preci
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2000 Billings Land Reclamation Symp
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size delineation is approximately t
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Table 1. Comparison of Williams & B
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least 2 of the 3 years that product
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This reclaimed mineland study was d
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surface traffic which followed the
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Another factor that may have contri
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since the plots were only fertilize
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successive pit is then placed on to
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gave the trees moisture retaining s
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INTRODUCTION While numerous studies
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In desert ecosystems of North Ameri
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Physically, the reconstructed soil
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small percentage of inhibitory soil
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INTRODUCTION In order to address co
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areas by soil depth were also gathe
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T52N Powder River Coal- Rawhide T50
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Table 2. Study Area Compared to Bre
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STUDY AREA The study area is Seneca
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Plant competition did not significa
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Tilman, D. and D. Wedin. 1991. “D
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INTRODUCTION The Montana Strip and
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livestock. The environmental charac
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In Montana, as well as much of the
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REFERENCES Econ, Inc. 1983. Vegetat
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INTRODUCTION In 1996, owners of a s
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Table 1. Physical and chemical char
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surface soils collected from both b
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The Book Cliffs lie within the Pric
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Rock Outcrop Rubbleland Topsoil Sto
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pinyon/juniper, Douglas fir/Rocky M
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Construction and Reclamation Sequen
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LEGEND: Cap Layer Material Excess I
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Step 7: LEGEND: Cap Layer Material
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A North Slope Rock, rubble Sideslop
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Approximate Original Contour Restor
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Regulatory Concerns with the Experi
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Nyenhuis, J. H. 1997. Soil resource
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INTRODUCTION Management of soils on
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Soil samples were collected from th
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situ soil. Data from the Irigaray R
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The data on soil microbial biomass
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Coal Basin is characterized by uniq
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A problem developed the summer foll
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delivered to the DMG over one thous
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A variety of containerized shrubs (
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TABLE 3. OUTSLOPE SEED MIXTURE SPEC
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INTRODUCTION Hard rock mines in the
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Coversoil an
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Table 2. Effect of coversoil thickn
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Brady, Nyle C. and R.R. Weil. 1996.
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2000 Billings Land Symposium SUCCES
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Traditional approaches to revegetat
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Table 1. Survival and mean vigor ra
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Survival (%) 100 80 60 40 20 0 �
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Seven planting sites were evaluated
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Table 5. Summary survival and parti
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SPECIES SELECTION Once the NPS made
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There is some question as to how mu
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Restoration within Yellowstone and
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Altitude Revegetation Workshop, No.
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INTRODUCTION The legacy of Montana
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METHODS AND MATERIALS The project d
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elt seeder based on a seeding rate
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Table 2. Anaconda Initial Evaluatio
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Planting begins with seedbed prepar
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REFERENCES Bradshaw, A.D.; McNeilly
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