Figure 30.— Densely revegetated slope of fourwing saltbush and some grasses on sandy saline spoils that were seeded in 

 1975 and irrigated for two growing seasons at the Navajo mine in New Mexico. The saltbush was dense during irrigation, 

 but it is now beginning to thin. July 1978. 



The diffuseness of reclamation literature was as- 

 sessed by Scott (1978, p. 311-312), who called 

 for an international journal on reclamation 

 research. To solve the general problem of inade- 

 quate information exchange, workers from sev- 

 eral Federal agencies met at an August 1979 

 coordination workshop on western mining recla- 

 mation and advised each other of the status of 

 reclamation handbooks published, in progress, 

 or needed. Between 1980 and 1982, the U.S. 

 Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, 

 and the Bureau of Land Management were to 

 prepare reclamation handbooks for use in west- 

 ern coal mine reclamation work. 



ESTIMATES OF RECLAMATION 

 EFFECTIVENESS 



Even with the broader perspectives gained 

 from examining reclamation results at many 

 western coal mines, this study cannot provide 

 quantitative answers to the questions posed in 



the introduction of this report. The reconnais- 

 sance did, however, provide insight into the 

 means for evaluating the issues and a sounder 

 basis for evaluating potential reclamation on a 

 case-by-case basis. A number of papers have 

 predicted successful reclamation results, but 

 none have dealt fully with native plant com- 

 munities (National Academy of Sciences, 1974, 

 p. 2; Frischknecht, 1978, p. 3; Hodder, 1978, 

 p. 149, 154; Packer and others, 1981). Similar 

 statements about reclamation success have ap- 

 peared in environmental impact statements pre- 

 pared by the U.S. Geological Survey and the 

 Bureau of Land Management for proposed sur- 

 face coal mines. A few reports take a more cau- 

 tionary approach (Curry, 1975). Wall and Kollman 

 (1977, p. 112), in proposing an ecological per- 

 spective (and a new term, "mining ecology"), are 

 generally optimistic regarding the future poten- 

 tials for returning mined lands to their original 

 productivity levels but challenge statements 

 that long-term productivity of reclaimed lands 

 can eventually exceed that of the premined 



45 



