Sustainable stripmine reclamation

Abstract

For many years areas stripmined for coal in the United States typically had deep lakes adjacent to ungraded spoil ridges and valleys with sustainable forest cover. The rooting medium was a mixture of rock fragments and soil fines that became prime forest alternative topsoil with good tree growth. Some barren areas had acid mine drainage. After 1977, emerging state regulation of coal mining was subject to federal law. Post-regulation landscapes in southern Illinois typically have replaced unproductive fine-textured surface soils, including intensively graded fragipans. Mined land cropped for bond release commonly becomes unmanaged grasslands. Scant mineland is returned to trees, with survival and growth poorer than on reclaimed minelands pre-regulation. Problems include high soil strength, poor water relations and excessive ground cover. Sustainable plant communities have not developed.

Keywords:

• Coal mining
• Alternative topsoil
• Trees
• Regulation
• Rooting medium