The Reclamation of the Strip‐Mined Coal Lands of West Virginia with Forage Species

THE most economic and, in many areas, the only safe method of mining shallow coal deposits or coals near their outcrop is to expose these for direct recovery by removing the overburden. Strip-mine operations are usually subject to considerable public condemnation. Sediments originating from the erosion of the barren areas occasionally cover nearby bottomland soils, overload small streams, increase flood hazards, and sometimes threaten local urban water supplies The creation of waste areas and the effect that these may have on the social and economic stability of the local community is viewed with concern by some. A number of states have passed or contemplate regulatory legislation. The first action to regulate strip-mining in West Virginia was taken in 1939. A legislative act (i) passed in that year which became effective January I, 1941, required the posting of bond with the chief of the State Department of Mines. The bond, known as a performance bond, was released after the banks or ridges of overburden material commonly known as "spoil" had been smoothed or leveled to the satisfaction of a state mines inspector. The 1939 act governing strip-mine operations was superceded by further legislative action (2) in 1945. Leveling under the new act was required only where land utilization prior to strip-mining had been either for pasture or cropland purposes. The strip-mine operator, however, was made responsible for planting all spoil areas regardless of previous land use with trees, shrubs, grasses, or vines, subject to the choice of the surface owner. The present investigation was initiated to secure information on the factors involved in establishing vegetation on spoil and to determine the adaptability of forage species on different types of spoil.