Land Reclamation Natural Revegetation of 15 Abandoned Mine Land Sites in West Virginia

Fifteen AML sites ranging in age from 13 to 35 yr in Northern West Virginia were selected from three surface-mined coal beds (Pittsburgh, Freeport, and Kittanning) to evaluate plant invasion and establishment on disturbed sites. Three 10 m by 10 m plots were randomly located on each site, and cover, density, and stem diameter of all woody plant species were measured. Herbaceous and plant litter cover were also estimated in square-meter quadrants within each 10-m plot. Total tree cover was significantly different among sites on Pittsburgh and Kittanning coal mined sites, but not among Freeport sites. Among coal beds, Kittanning sites had the lowest tree cover (33% avg), Pittsburgh had an average of 67%, while Freeport sites had a multilayered tree cover averaging >100%. A total of 29 tree species were found on these sites. No tree species occurred on all 15 sites, but black cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrh.) and red maple (Acer rubrum L.) were found on 13 sites. Clustering produced three distinct plant communities including (i) an herbaceous community, (ii) a tree community dominated by red maple, and (iii) another tree community of primarily black birch (Betula lenta L.). Herbacious communities were found on sites with soil pH >5.0, while tree communities occurred on sites with pH <5.0. On disturbed sites with high soil pH, herbacious plants rapidly invaded and formed an almost complete cover. On low-pH sites, the invasion of plant species from adjacent undisturbed sites was initiated in favorable microsites where minesoil or environmental conditions were ameliorated. A 34 000 ha of coal mined land in West Virginia have been designated as abandoned mine land (USDA-SCS, 1979). Abandoned mine land (AML) sites are coal mining disturbances that were not adequately reclaimed before the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) on 3 Aug. 1977, and where no company or individual has any reclamation responsibility under state or federal laws. Most of this AML area has undergone some natural revegetation with various grass and tree species. Many AML sites revegetate in relatively short time (i.e., 1020 yr) because they have fertile minesoils with few physical and chemical properties that limit plant establishment and growth. A much smaller AML land area has one or more edaphic properties that severely limit reinvasion by plant species from adjacent undisturbed sites. These sites may take much longer (decades to centuries) before natural processes create a site habitable by most plant species. The natural plant invasions observed on AMLs in Wisconsin (Kimmerer, 1984) and Texas (Skousen et al., 1990) were similar to those observed on old fields (Ashby J.G. Skousen and K. Garbutt, Div. of Plant and Soil Sciences and Dep. of Biology, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV 26506-6108; and C.D. Johnson, Florida Inst. of Phosphate Res., Bartow, FL 33830. Scientific contribution no. 2453 from the West Virginia Agric. Exp. Stn., Morgantown. This research was funded by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, National Mine Land Reclamation Center under Contract no. CO388026 and by funds appropriated under the Hatch Act. Received 3 Jan 1994. *Corresponding author. Published in J. Environ. Qual. 23:1224-1230 (1994). and Weaver, 1970). For example, abandoned fields in Illinois (Bazzaz, 1968) were dominated for the first 10 yr by one or two pioneering species such as goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis Ait.), broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus L.), or white heath aster (Aster pilosus Wild). Tree species of mature forests such as tuliptree (Liridoendron tulipifera L.), redbud (Cercis canadensis L.), and shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria Michx. ) were only found in fields abandoned for over 40 yr. Likewise, invading plant species of AMLs are often weedy species tolerant of extremes in temperature, moisture, and light. Later, the site may be inhabited by trees that establish and become conspicuous after amelioration of harsh conditions (Skousen et al., 1990). Invading species on AMLs are often those with effective seed dispersal mechanisms, high seed production rates, local availability, and tolerant of minesoil conditions (Ashby, 1984). Coal minesoils in Pennsylvania (Bramble and Ashley, 1955; Schramm, 1966) and England (Hall, 1957) were colonized by plant species of surrounding areas having efficient seed dispersal mechanisms. The species composition of AML sites in Oklahoma (Gibson et al., 1985) were determined by (i) the species’ geographical distribution, and (ii) the species’ propagule dispersal ability. In New Mexico, plant community diversity on disturbed sites was related to the distance from undisturbed areas, and species with longrange seed dispersal mechanisms were found on these disturbed areas (Wagner et al., 1978). Invasion on AMLs is uneven (Ashby, 1984), and often produces irregular islands or patches of vegetation from plants of surrounding undisturbed areas (Bramble and Ashley, 1955). Plant succession on disturbed areas can manifest itself by the development and expansion of these vegetation islands through time. Vegetation aggregation and patch dynamics were studied by Game et al. (1982) on AMLs in Missouri. Vegetation development was observed to pass through three stages. Stage 1 involved rapid colonization of microsites by plant propagules from the surrounding undisturbed land that formed small islands of vegetation. In Stage 2, existing patches grew in size with only a few new islands establishing. In Stage 3, the patches coalesced. Substrate conditions of AML sites sometimes dictate species composition (Hulst, 1978) in that species most adapted to specific minesoil conditions establish and contribute rapidly to the plant community. Plant community composition was not greatly affected by site age or time since abandonment in England (Hall, 1957; Roberts et al., 1981) and Illinois (Lindsay and Nawrot, 1981) beAbbreviations: AML, abandoned mine land; SMCRA, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act; IMPV, importance value.