Restoring Sustainable Forests on Appalachian Mined Lands for Wood Products, Renewable Energy, Carbon Sequestration, and Other Ecosystem Services: Coal-Mined Land Restoration

J. McGrath, C. Zipper, J. Burger

By federal law, land reclamation processes conducted by active coal mines must restore mined areas to land-use capabilities that are equal to or better than those that preceded mining. Whether or not this requirement is being met is both a public-policy issue and a natural-resource management concern. All coal mine permits describe a use that the land will be capable of supporting after mining and the reclamation practices that will prepare the land to serve that use. The focus of this research is eastern US lands mined for coal, reclaimed for purpose of supporting hay-production or livestock grazing, but not managed for that or any other economic purpose. Such lands commonly revert to forest.

This research is evaluating the success of mine reclamation practices employed by eastern US coal mines. By federal law (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, SMCRA) reclamation practices by an active mine must restore a land-use capability that is equal to or better than that which preceded mining. Most eastern-US lands mined for coal are forested prior to mining. The research is evaluating the potential forest productivity of mined lands reclaimed to support livestock grazing and/or hay production (called hayland-pasture) but not utilized for that or any other economic purpose after mining. Experience of the investigator and colleagues indicates such lands to be a common byproduct of coal mining in eastern US, where they revert to forest. The research objective is to determine the suitability of eastern US coal-mined lands for forest use. Mine regulatory agencies in Virginia (VA), Kentucky (KY), Ohio (OH), and West Virginia (WV) were contacted, and each provided a database of coal mine permits that were approved and completed under SMCRA. Twenty potential field-sampling sites were selected from the mine permit database for each state using a randomized selection process, weighting each permit by area. Efforts were made to identify, contact, and request access permissions from owners and/or managers of selected sites. Because the number of selected sites in WV and OH for which such permissions could be obtained was insufficient to meet research goals, we also sampled alternate sites identified by knowledgeable parties as comparable to individual selected sites for which access permissions could not be obtained. Soils on six reclaimed mines were sampled in OH, KY, and VA, and soils on seven reclaimed mines were sampled in WV. On each site, 10 sampling locations were identified using a randomized procedure. In some cases, fewer than 10 locations were sampled for reasons that included sampling point locations that landed on roadways, time constraints, and hostile visitors. The 25 mine sites yielded 225 sample locations. The soil samples were split at the topsoil-subsoil interface and are being analyzed for nutrient content (P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe, and B), organic matter, total C and N, cation exchange capacity, pH, soluble salts, bulk density, moisture content, and soil texture. Ground cover and composition, rooting depth (by methods developed by colleagues for mine-soil application, using a screw auger to penetrate the soil until refusal), slope, and aspect were measured in the field. Vegetation was characterized and herbaceous biomass was measured at each sample site. Measured soil properties will be used to estimate the forest productivity of each site, expressed as a 50-year site index for native hardwoods, using methods developed by a colleague and cooperator, Dr. J.A. Burger. The estimated forest productivity values for the mine sites will be compared to literature values for typical eastern US forests.

Research Sponsor: US Department of Energy