English

Abstract

For over a century coal mining has been an important industry in West Virginia, creating jobs and generating revenue for the state and surrounding region, but advancements in technology and mining methods has accelerated the disturbance of valuable contiguous deciduous forests in the Appalachian region. Mountaintop mining has converted large expanses of forested mountaintops to rolling pasture and hay land. Once thought to be of economic value, these pasture/hay lands were unmanaged and have been left abandoned to revert to shrub land dominated by invasive non-native species. Due to excessive soil compaction and heavy herbaceous cover, natural plant community succession from planted grasslands to hardwood forests is slow. Recently, efforts are being made to re-establish hardwood forests on mined land through careful spoil and amendments selection and placement and planting of appropriate herbaceous and tree species. In order to evaluate tree growth on selected spoils with various amendments, a 3-ha demonstration plot was created at ICG-Eastern's Birch River mine in West Virginia. The plot is comprised of two exclusive areas of oxidized (brown) and un-oxidized (gray) sandstone substrates. Portions of each area were amended with bark mulch and/or hydroseeded with fertilizer and herbaceous species, creating a total of eight treatments. The study area was planted with a variety of hardwood tree species on 2.4-m centers. Soil chemical properties and tree survival and growth were evaluated for four years beginning in 2007. After four years, hydroseeding had no effect on soil chemical properties. Soil chemistry strongly depended on sandstone type and mulch amendment. The pH of brown sandstone without bark mulch application was 4.9. Soil pH for brown sandstone with mulch and all gray sandstone treatments ranged from 7.2 to 7.8. The largest average tree volume, 1098 cm 3 , was recorded on treatments with brown sandstone and bark mulch. Tree growth on gray sandstone was the lowest. Interaction between sandstone type and mulch was most influential on tree growth. Four years after reclamation, hydroseeding at a rate of 28 lbs ac -1 had no effect on tree growth. Interaction between sandstone type and mulch was most influential on soils chemical properties. No treatment was found to have an effect on tree survival. Survival of all treatments ranged from 77 to 100%. In conclusion, tree growth on brown sandstone outperformed gray. After four years, hydroseeding had no effect on tree growth or soil chemical properties. Mulch application had the ability to improve tree growth in both sandstone types and had a strong influence on soil chemical properties.