Vegetation development of forestry reclaimed sand and sand‐gravel pits: is it on a way towards more natural species composition?

Until now, forestry reclamation has been a prevailing method used during mining‐site restoration in Central Europe. Although many studies described the process and outcome of forestry reclamation, none described in detail the vegetation development from initial to late stages. Our study aimed to fill this gap focusing on vegetation description in forestry reclaimed post‐mining sand and sand‐gravel pits across the Czech Republic, identification of the effects of the surrounding vegetation on species composition in forestry reclaimed sites, and comparison of the conservation value in terms of species richness and number of Red List species of sites originating from forestry reclamation and spontaneous revegetation. In the early stages of vegetation development of forestry reclaimed sites, dry and mesic grassland species occurred, with some species belonging to the national Red List. After about 5 years, however, these species rapidly disappeared and were replaced by woodland species. In contrast, spontaneously revegetated sites hosted much more dry and mesic grassland species, as well as Red List species, which persisted during the considered stand age (1–75 years). Although there was a large overlap in species composition between the forestry reclaimed and spontaneously revegetated sites, the study clearly demonstrated that the most valuable sites from a conservation perspective are destroyed within a few years by forestry reclamation. Therefore, spontaneous revegetation should be considered as a low‐cost alternative method to forestry reclamation for vegetation restoration in post‐mining sand and sand‐gravel pits in Central Europe.