Surface Mining Reclamation Research Articles

English

Mined land reclamation and reforestation issues traditionally have been viewed in scientific and regulatory terms over the last thirty years. However, in this paper we explore levels of political trust among stakeholders -- the coal industry, regulators, scientists and environmentalists -- in the coal mining states of West Virginia and Wyoming who are responsible for designing and implementing the scientific and regulatory terms of reclamation pursuant to the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Survey data collected from 400 stakeholders and in-depth interviews document stakeholder attitudes about trust in the reclamation process (i.e., planning process through implementation) and in other stakeholders. Preliminary findings indicate that many SMCRA stakeholders (including scientists) hold pessimistic views about the fairness, legitimacy and inclusiveness of the reclamation process. We also find that a sizeable number of stakeholders have a substantial lack of trust in other stakeholders, results which lend support to historical and anecdotal accounts of dissension among SMCRA stakeholders. Our study suggests that even if the best reclamation/reforestation science is implemented correctly, key stakeholders responsible for designing and implementing it may not view on the ground results of reclamation as a success because they lack trust in the reclamation process and in each other. In other words, the significance of political trust should not be undervalued. Recent reclamation efforts by members of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) illustrate this point. Despite an aggressive scientific and technical outreach by ARRI's leaders, they report that serious cultural barriers remain pervasive in the Appalachian coalfields. Political trust issues are likely limiting the benefits that ARRI's scientific advances can achieve.

English

Protection of threatened and endangered species is an important component of every surface coal mining permit and every abandoned mine land (AML) project under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Protection of endangered bats has the potential to impact surface coal mining permits and AML projects in most of the states in the eastern and Midwestern U.S. During the winter of 2006/2007, an affliction called White- Nose Syndrome (WNS) began devastating colonies of hibernating bats around Albany, New York. Colonies of hibernating bats were reduced 81-97% at affected caves and mines. Since then, WNS has been detected more than 450 miles away from the original site, and has infected bats in nine surrounding states, including four coal mining states, and possibly one Canadian province. No one knows for certain how quickly or how far WNS will ultimately spread. The extent to which WNS results in the listing of more bat species as threatened and endangered would be expected to negatively impact permitting and operation of coal mines in the eastern and Midwestern U.S. The emergence and spread of a pathogenic fungus (Geomyces destructans) that infects hibernating bats has the potential to undermine the basic survival strategy of more than half the bat species in the U.S. and all species of bats that occur in the higher latitudes of North America. Most species of bats that hibernate in the region are known to be affected and the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) has been hit particularly hard. The sudden and widespread mortality associated with WNS is unprecedented in hibernating bats. If the spread of WNS is not slowed or halted, further losses could lead to the extinction of entire species and could more than quadruple those that are federally listed as endangered in the U.S. This paper will provide the current status on WNS and its potential to impact protection of endangered bat species related to surface coal mine permitting and AML project planning by state mining programs within the range of these bats.

Changes in Croplands as a Result of Large Scale Mining and the Associated Impact on Food Security Studied Using Time-Series Landsat Images

Geographic information systems and satellite remote sensing information are emerging technologies in land-cover change assessment. They now provide an opportunity to gain insights into land-cover change properties through the spatio-temporal data capture over several decades. The time series of Landsat images covering the 1985–2009 period is used here to explore the impacts of surface mining and reclamation, which constitute a dominant force in land-cover changes in the northwestern regions of the Czech Republic. Advanced quantification of the extent of mining activities is important for assessing how these land-cover changes affect ecosystem services such as croplands. The images employed from 1985, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 assist in mapping the extent of surface mines and mine reclamation for large surface mines in a few selected areas of interest. The image processing techniques are based on pixel-by-pixel calculation of the vegetation index, such as NDVI. The NDVI values are classified into the defined classes based on CORINE Land Cover 2000 data in a 3280 km2 strip of Landsat images. This distribution of NDVI values is used to estimate the land-cover classes in the local areas of interest (184 km2, 368 km2, 737 km2, and 1,474 km2). Thus, the approximate land-cover stability of the 3,280 km2 strip during the whole 1985–2009 period is used to explore land-cover disturbances in the local areas of surface mines. In the case of NDVI, it also includes variations, presumably caused by seasonal vegetation effects, and local meteorological conditions. However, the main trends related to mining activities during the long-term period can be clearly understood. As a result, other objectives can be explored in the 1985–2009 period, such as cropland changes to other land use classes, changes of cropland patterns, and their impacts on food security. The presented spatio-temporal modeling based on long time series from 12 satellite images provides considerable experience for processing NDVI in the framework of identification of land-cover classes and also, to a certain degree, cropland variability with its impact on food security.

Engaging Pre-Service Teachers and Elementary School Students in the Forestry Reclamation Approach Through Earthworm Inoculation

In the spring of 2009, a partnership was formed between the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) and the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team (ACCWT) for the purpose of restoring forests on post-bond release mine sites in Appalachia. ARRI is a broad-based citizen/industry/government program working to promote and encourage the planting of productive trees on Title IV (abandoned coal mine land) and Title V (active coal mine land) sites under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). The ACCWT, an innovative partnership between the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and AmeriCorps*VISTA was founded in response to requests from small, community volunteer-based watershed groups throughout coal country to target problems associated with the legacy of pre-regulatory coal mining in Appalachian watersheds. As a result of the partnership between ACCWT and ARRI, 27,000 trees were planted on 36 acres of previously reclaimed mined land by 520 volunteers in five Appalachian coal states in the spring of 2009. In addition, because the value of earthworms in improving soil quality and thus, improving plant survival is well documented, elementary education students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) had the opportunity to develop vermiculture protocols and earthworm lesson plans for use by teachers participating in these reforestation efforts, as part of a service learning project in their life science content class. The protocols were distributed to classroom teachers in areas served by the ARRI/ACCWT reclamation project to assist them in raising earthworms and promoting earthworm-related learning experiences with their students. Earthworms were then released by elementary and middle school students while trees were being planted on old mine sites in an effort to improve soil quality and increase tree survival. A discussion of this vermiculture project, which included the inoculation of earthworms into mine soils of pre- and post-SMCRA mine sites near Haysi, Virginia, and Carcassonne, Kentucky are described in this paper.

Coal mining regulations

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on 18 November measures to strengthen the oversight of state surface coal mining programs and to promulgate federal regulations to protect streams affected by surface coal mining operations. DOI's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is publishing an advance notice of a proposed rule about protecting streams from adverse impacts of surface coal mining operations. A rule issued by the Bush administration in December 2008 allows coal mine operators to place excess excavated materials into streams if they can show it is not reasonably possible to avoid doing so. “We are moving as quickly as possible under the law to gather public input for a new rule, based on sound science, that will govern how companies handle fill removed from mountaintop coal seams,” according to Wilma Lewis, assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management at DOI.

Private and Social Costs of Surface Mine Reforestation Performance Criteria

We study the potentially unnecessary costs imposed by strict performance standards for forest restoration of surface coal mines in the Appalachian region under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) that can vary widely across states. Both the unnecessary private costs to the mine operator and costs to society (social costs) are reported for two performance standards, a ground cover requirement, and a seedling survival target. These standards are examined using numerical analyses under a range of site productivity class and market conditions. We show that a strict (90%) ground cover standard may produce an unnecessary private cost of more than $700/ha and a social cost ranging from $428/ha to $710/ha, as compared with a 70% standard. A strict tree survival standard of 1235 trees/ha, as compared with the more typical 1087 trees/ha standard, may produce an unnecessary private cost of approximately $200/ha, and a social cost in the range of $120 to $208/ha. We conclude that strict performance standards may impose substantial unnecessary private costs and social costs, that strict performance standards may be discouraging the choice of forestry as a post-mining land use, and that opportunities exist for reform of reforestation performance standards. Our study provides a basis for evaluating tradeoffs between regulatory efficiency and optimal reforestation effort.

TRASH OR TREASURE?: Putting Coal Combustion Waste to Work

Even as public debate rages over the question of whether coal should continue to provide the majority of U.S. electric power needs, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts in International Energy Outlook 2009 that, absent new policies to the contrary, the United States—along with China and India—is expected to account for 88% of the projected net increase in coal consumption between 2006 and 2030. Meanwhile, coal combustion waste (CCW)—the noncombustible remains from coal burning—continues to pile up at the rate of about 131 million tons per year in the United States alone, and electric utilities are looking to recycle a larger proportion of this material.

Hydrologic characteristics of Appalachian loose‐dumped spoil in the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky

AbstractHeavily compacted lands, typical of traditional surface mine reclamation techniques, have been shown to hinder tree growth, increase levels of flooding, and produce suboptimal water quality. Utilizing loose‐dumped spoil, in accordance with the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA), has demonstrated success with regards to promoting tree growth and survival; however, additional information is needed to assess the potential of FRA to ameliorate other environmental concerns related to water quantity. To better understand the hydrologic characteristics of loose‐dumped spoil, key hydrograph parameters (discharge volume, peak discharge, discharge duration, lag time, and response time) were monitored for three common spoil types: (1) predominately brown weathered sandstone, (2) predominately gray weathered sandstone, and (3) a mixture of both sandstones and shale. Although spoil types were found to differ hydrologically, these differences were relatively minor. Measured discharge volumes were low (averaging 12% of rainfall for all events and treatments), peak discharge rates were small (between 2·5 × 10−5 and 3 × 10−3 m3/s), and the duration of discharge was long (6 days on average). From a hydrologic perspective, the results of this study indicate that mine spoils need not be segregated for reclamation as long as the spoil is placed in accordance with the loose‐dumped techniques as outlined in the FRA. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

English

It is well known that soil microbial communities reestablish following disturbance, but limited research has been done on how long this takes in eastern reclaimed coal mine soils. The objective of this study was to track the development of total microbial biomass in reclaimed mine soils following coal mining in southwestern Virginia. A chronosequence of sites was established based on locally documented shifts in vegetation species with succession (0-2, 5-7, 18-20, and 38-42 yr old) on reclaimed sites with undisturbed adjacent sites used as a reference. The 0-2 yr old sites were covered with annual and perennial grasses and forbs, the 5-7 yr sites by thick stands of Lespedeza cuneata, the 18-20 yr sites predominately with Festuca arundinaceae and patches of deciduous trees, and the 38-42 yr old sites with a mix of planted conifers and native Appalachian hardwoods with a grass understory. Undisturbed sites predominately supported mixed Appalachian hardwoods with a mixed forb/grass understory. Four samples were taken from each site age (3 replicates) at the 0-5 cm depth. Chloroform-fumigation- extraction was used to determine total organic carbon from lysed microbial cells as a proxy for microbial biomass. Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) did not vary significantly among any of the site ages sampled; however, a general trend of increasing MBC from a low level in the more recently reclaimed sites (131-138 g microbial C kg -1 soil) to a higher level of MBC in the 16-20 and 38-42 yr sites (280 and 244 g microbial C kg -1 soil, respectively) was observed. This indicated a recovery of soil microbial communities with time; possibly well within the 5-year vegetation liability release period mandated by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).

English

Topsoil means many things to many people, but to everyone it represents the best part of the soil from a plant-growth perspective. Many activities alter the soil profile including surface mining, agriculture, and urban development. Of these, mining is subject to state and national regulations for protection of soil and the USDA has a series of programs to protect from erosion. The extensive use of mass grading to remove from entire subdivisions during construction will likely create pressure for additional standards and regulations governing protection and replacement, as will national efforts to restore brownfields. Topsoil is the subject of mine reclamation regulations and is viewed as something to be protected and preserved, but also something that regulators will allow, in certain situations, to be removed or buried and replaced by a substitute. When there is a need for a suitable growth medium to support vegetation at a site that has lost its native due to mining or other earth moving activities, a wide range of materials can be used as including subsoil or selected overburden materials. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) was the first federal statute to specifically define operations involving the handling, storage, and substitution of topsoil. Within SMCRA, topsoil is not specifically defined, but the A horizon is identified in the prime farmland subsection, and by implication it is topsoil. SMCRA also specifically allows for the use of substitutes when the pre-mining A + E horizons are less than 15 cm thick. Blasted sedimentary overburden materials are routinely converted into successful substitutes in the Appalachian coal mining region, but compaction commonly limits their productivity, and post-mining pH must be carefully matched to intended post-mining vegetation. A wide range of organic and mineral wastes and residual products can be beneficially used for either in-situ soil reconstruction or on-site remediation. Similarly, many run-of-mine mineral wastes can be successfully combined with organic composts to produce commercially viable manufactured topsoils. This paper will review the authors' experience with topsoil, both in a scientific and practical, applied sense. Of necessity, it will focus on surface mine issues, while raising other issues and discussing some case studies.

English

The current art of reclamation and the science surrounding it generally had its beginnings in the environmental movement of the late 1960's and early 1970's and culminated in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 and subsequent advancement in knowledge since that time. Within current energy industries in the western United States, much can be learned from almost 30 years of coal mine reclamation practices and research. Reclamation regulations vary significantly between coal mines and all other mining (such as uranium), as well as oil and gas (O&G) operations. However, knowledge obtained from one industry may promote land stabilization in a time effective manner within another industry's disturbance and bonding requirements. Land disturbances due to O&G are different in that the majority of the disturbance is linear rather than large blocks. The proximity to native areas in O&G development is generally a positive factor, in that significant edge effect (reinvasion of plant species) may come into play during reclamation. The depth and volume of material movement in a coal mining operation are much greater than in traditional O&G or coalbed natural gas (CBNG) operations when an equal sized area is compared. However, total surface disturbance in O&G or CBNG has the potential to be much greater than in a single coal mining operation. There is not a one-size-fits-all reclamation solution across all industries due to the type of disturbance, varying regulations and site-specific circumstances. Within a given O&G development, the contact between various landscape features makes a one-size-fits-all approach particularly problematic. Each development area for O&G should be evaluated individually to determine what techniques might be appropriate. However, well pads, facilities, and pipelines with similar topography, soil, and precipitation patterns should be treated in the same way, wherever possible, to reduce the complexity of reclamation operations.

English

West Virginia has historically been and continues to be one of the country's leading coal producing states. Surface disturbance associated with mining gives managers an opportunity to practice what may be the ultimate in early successional stage habitat management. Not only does mining remove the existing vegetation but it also creates a new soil horizon. Prior to the passage of the Surface Mining Reclamation Control Act (SMRCA) in 1977, very little reclamation took place. Since then, however, companies have been required to reclaim mine lands. It was in this required reclamation that the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) saw an opportunity to involve itself in reclamation to benefit wildlife. The WVDNR Mining Coordination Program was thus created in 1981. This program would review mining preplans for their impact to wildlife and would provide technical assistance to the coal companies to aid in reclamation for wildlife. These reclamation plans were designed to provide food and cover for targeted species on what was often being left as large expanses of open grass land. Their primary goal was to speed succession using plant species that would provide food and cover for the targeted species. Although limited in part by mining reclamation practices, some of which were required by law, these wildlife reclamation plans were quite successful. However the size of the operations and the techniques used in modern mining has produced a new set of challenges to the Mining Coordination Program. Recent strides toward improving reclamation at the newer mining operations have been made, but the future presents new and greater challenges in keeping wildlife a focal point in reclamation.

English

Soils play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle; they represent a carbon reservoir larger than the atmosphere, they are the site of a number of key carbon transformations (e.g. mineralization and humification), and contain a number of unique carbon pools (e.g. plant litter, humic substances, dissolved organic matter, etc.). Land disturbance associated with surface coal mining results in complete disruption of the soil system, loss of a significant portion of soil carbon content, and disturbance of many of the organisms that play critical roles in the carbon cycle (primary producers and decomposers). One of the challenges of surface mine reclamation is reconstruction of a soil system which functions properly in the impacted ecosystem. The objective of this paper is to report our research findings on the recovery of soil carbon pools in reclaimed surface mined lands. Data from our studies indicate 2 mechanisms are important in the rapid accumulation of C from plant litter into soil: physical protection by soil aggregates and biochemical protection of high lignin content. Examination of chronosequences of reclaimed soils indicates plant litter is rapidly incorporated into soil aggregate structure in most of these soils. Lignin content of reclaimed soils we analyzed were higher than that of nearby undisturbed soils, indicating the recalcitrant nature of soil C in reclaimed soils and/or possibly the slow recovery of lignin degrading organisms, primarily fungi. Assays of potentially mineralizable C indicate concentrations of labile C in reclaimed soils reach amounts similar to those in undisturbed soil within 5 or 6 years after revegetation.

English

Phase II bond release is defined in Montana as replacement and soil tillage being completed and perennial vegetation establishing that is consistent with revegetation criteria (ARM 17.24.1116). Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) rules (30 CFR 800.40) define Phase II bond release as after revegetation has been established on the regraded mined lands in accordance with the approved reclamation plan. These definitions are similar, but not identical, and neither definition mandates quantitative measures that provide objective standards for judging success or failure. In the past, judgments have sometimes differed between various mine inspectors. This problem is exacerbated in years where high production of introduced opportunistic species, such as annual bromes (Bromus tectorum, B. japonicus) or yellow sweetclover (Mellilotus officinalis), may obscure the perennial vegetation. A method for determining the adequacy of vegetation establishment for Phase II bond release for surface coal mines in Montana is described. The method is designed to be quick, easy, and objective. It is used only for areas where questions or disagreements between regulatory personnel exist. The method assesses the percentage of 0.1 m 2 sample hoops that contain adequate perennial vegetation. We provide details for the method used in Montana, and we discuss potential adaptations for other geographic areas as well.

English

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) have reviewed the costs and benefits of two very different types of data gathering to accomplish a specific mission. The agencies generated cross sections of large land disturbances using Trimble Geo Explorer series GPS receiver units ranging from the submeter GeoXT with EVERESTTM multipath rejection technology to the GeoXH with Trimble H-StarTM and optional ZephyrTM external antenna capable of approximately 25 cm. vertical accuracy post processed. Next, they tested the suitability of Lidar data for the same purposes and generated projected cost using that method on the same sites. The potential use of photogrammetry was also considered. By maintaining an accounting of all the time associated with both methods, the agencies gained a better perspective on the costs and benefits of these technologies for future decisions. In this project, the mission involved comparing pre, proposed and final graded slopes on eight large surface mines in steep slopes in West Virginia as part of the review of “Approximate Original Contour “ requirements under the coal mining regulatory program. The agencies found that use of remote sensing technologies, such as aerial based Lidar, can be a cost savings over obtaining digital information using GPS field devices on the ground. Additional

Runoff curve numbers for loose-dumped spoil in the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky

Excess compaction occurs through the use of traditional surface mining reclamation techniques, resulting in low infiltration rates and subsequently high peak flows and runoff volumes. The incorporation of loose-dumped spoil into the reclamation process has been shown to promote tree growth; however, designers have little information regarding the probable hydrologic consequences (PHC) associated with this spoil disposal method. To better understand the hydrologic effects of reclaiming mined lands using loose-dumped spoil, curve numbers (CN) were developed for both a steeply sloping, forested watershed in eastern Kentucky and six, 0.4 ha test cells comprised of three types of loose-dumped spoil: (1) brown, weathered sandstone, (2) grey, unweathered sandstone and (3) a mixture of both sandstones and shale. The spoil was placed in accordance with the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA). Results of this project indicate that the mean CN for loose-dumped spoil was equivalent to the mean CN for the forested watershed.

Changes in the extent of surface mining and reclamation in the Central Appalachians detected using a 1976–2006 Landsat time series

Surface mining and reclamation is the dominant driver of land cover land use change (LCLUC) in the Central Appalachian Mountain region of the Eastern U.S. Accurate quantification of the extent of mining activities is important for assessing how this LCLUC affects ecosystem services such as aesthetics, biodiversity, and mitigation of flooding. We used Landsat imagery from 1976, 1987, 1999 and 2006 to map the extent of surface mines and mine reclamation for eight large watersheds in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. We employed standard image processing techniques in conjunction with a temporal decision tree and GIS maps of mine permits and wetlands to map active and reclaimed mines and track changes through time. For the entire study area, active surface mine extent was highest in 1976, prior to implementation of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, with 1.76% of the study area in active mines, declining to 0.44% in 2006. The most extensively mined watershed, Georges Creek in Maryland, was 5.45% active mines in 1976, declining to 1.83% in 2006. For the entire study area, the area of reclaimed mines increased from 1.35% to 4.99% from 1976 to 2006, and from 4.71% to 15.42% in Georges Creek. Land cover conversion to mines and then reclaimed mines after 1976 was almost exclusively from forest. Accuracy levels for mined and reclaimed cover was above 85% for all time periods, and was generally above 80% for mapping active and reclaimed mines separately, especially for the later time periods in which good accuracy assessment data were available. Among other implications, the mapped patterns of LCLUC are likely to significantly affect watershed hydrology, as mined and reclaimed areas have lower infiltration capacity and thus more rapid runoff than unmined forest watersheds, leading to greater potential for extreme flooding during heavy rainfall events.

The impact of surface applied mulches on selected physical properties of reclaimed mountaintop removal sites

Much of the land reclaimed since enactment of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act is over-compacted. Excessive compaction in replaced growth media is detrimental to establishment of trees. If trees are to be grown on reclaimed sites, excessive compaction must be alleviated. Dry bulk density and penetration resistance can be used to indicate the level of compaction in replaced growth media. The University of Kentucky has developed reclamation test cells at a surface mine to determine the impact of organic soil supplements on selected soil physical properties of reclaimed sites. The organic soil supplements being evaluated include hardwood bark and straw and manure. Data were collected at the test cells for dry bulk density, maximum penetration depth and penetration resistance. The data show no statistical evidence that applying organic supplements has a major effect on selected soil physical properties in replaced growth media.

Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970-2004 (review)

Reviewed by: Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970-2004 Chad Montrie Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970-2004. By Shirley Stewart Burns. (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2007. Pp. xviii, 215.) With a long family history of underground coal mining behind her, including a grandfather and a father dead from black lung, Shirley Stewart Burns speaks with personal authority about the ways the coal industry has harmed the land and people of southern West Virginia. Drawing on her training as a journalist and historian, she also exercises considerable skill in detailing the expansion of mountaintop removal (MTR) and its growing opposition. Her book, Bringing Down the Mountains, organizes this story into six chapters. It starts with an overview of southern West Virginia strip mining and continues with sections on the social and environmental impact of mountaintop removal, the rise and decline of the United Mine Workers, coal politics in West Virginia, as well as recent judicial decisions on MTR regulation. Burns contends that mountaintop removal has become increasingly prevalent in her part of the country for several reasons. First, during the twentieth century the coal industry made great efforts to reduce labor costs through mechanization, and the different variants of strip mining—MTR is only the latest—are part of that trend. Secondly, the Clean Air Act, passed in the early 1970s, made southern West Virginia's relatively low-sulfur coal more marketable, enticing coal operators as well as giant energy [End Page 125] conglomerates. And lastly, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), passed in 1977, failed to prohibit mountaintop removal, as many activists had demanded. In fact, the regulatory legislation made exception for MTR and, with industry-friendly enforcement, it basically sanctioned legalized destruction in the coalfields. Bringing Down the Mountains also insists that mountaintop removal is the product of West Virginia's role as periphery to a resource- and wealth-extracting core. This explains, in part, why opponents of MTR and strip mining in general have had such a difficult time getting the coal industry to abide by even weak environmental control laws, like SMCRA and the Clean Water Act. Again and again, Burns rightly points out, the people (including miners) have seen their interests disregarded by the state legislature, Congress, and state and federal courts. This is no coincidence, she tells us, but rather the fruits of a neo-colonial relationship with the rest of the nation, ever in need of more coal. Yet, while Burns provides readers with an incisive and critical look at MTR in the one place where it has become most common, Bringing Down the Mountains is wanting in several ways. The historical background on strip mining's opposition is too brief to provide adequate context (three or four pages, compared to the lengthier but less essential overview of 1920s UMW history). In particular, the book makes no mention of 1960s grassroots militancy, which historians need to explore in much greater detail. Just as importantly, it does not attend to the origins and evolution of a post-SMCRA opposition, from the late 1970s to the present, saving a few scattered paragraphs. Neither does it completely fill out the contemporary struggle, neglecting the now yearly, youth-led Mountain Justice Summer campaigns, an interesting and promising injection of "global justice" thinking and tactics. One of the main reasons for oversights in Bringing Down the Mountains is a thin primary source base. With the exception of articles from the New York Times and Charleston Gazette, dating mostly to the late 1990s and the first few years of the twenty-first century, Burns relies heavily on an incomplete secondary literature. This would be understandable if she were merely writing a journalistic-style overview, a "first draft of history," but we already have plenty of those on MTR (in print and film), and the book should be more. To do this—a multi-part project some aspiring graduate students or other scholars might consider—an historian would have to look also at coal and energy trade journals, the United Mine Workers Journal and other union sources, newsletters from...

Carbon sequestration by forests and soils on mined land in the Midwestern and Appalachian coalfields of the U.S.

Carbon (C) accreditation of forest development projects is one approach for sequestering atmospheric CO 2, under the provisions of the Kyoto protocol. The C sequestration potential of reforested mined land is not well known. The purpose of this work was to estimate and compare the ecosystem C content in forests established on surface, coal-mined and non-mined land. We used existing tree, litter, and soil C data for fourteen mined and eight adjacent, non-mined forests in the Midwestern and Appalachian coalfields to determine the C sequestration potential of mined land reclaimed prior to the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (1977). We developed statistically significant and biologically reasonable models for ecosystem C across the spectrum of site quality and stand age. On average, the highest amount of ecosystem C on mined land was sequestered in pine stands (148 Mg ha −1), followed by hardwood (130 Mg ha −1) and mixed stands (118 Mg ha −1). Non-mined hardwood stands sequestered 210 Mg C ha −1, which was about 62% higher than the average of all mined stands. Our mined land response surface models of C sequestration as a function of site quality and age explained 59, 39, and 36% of the variation of ecosystem C in mixed, pine, and hardwood stands, respectively. In pine and mixed stands, ecosystem C increased exponentially with the increase of site quality, but decreased with age. In mined hardwood stands, ecosystem C increased asymptotically with age, but it was not affected by site quality. At rotation age (60 yr), ecosystem C in mined hardwood stands was less on high quality sites, but similar for low quality sites compared to non-mined hardwood stands. The overall results indicated that the higher the original forest site quality, the less likely C sequestration potential was restored, and the greater the disparity between pre- and post-mining C sequestration stocks.