Figure 32.— Isolated 2- to 3-year-old fourwing saltbush plant on overgrazed reclaimed ground at the Black Mesa mine in 

 Arizona. Most of the seeded vegetation was destroyed by overgrazing, and the visible plant life now is mostly the annual 

 weed Russian-thistle. July 1978. 



young to be evaluated. Furthermore, some 

 native species have been found to be difficult to 

 establish from seed. 



The main question, however, is what will hap- 

 pen over long periods of time. Is it possible to 

 predict the long-term vegetative productivity 

 potentials? Can a self-sustaining diverse plant 

 community composed primarily of native spe- 

 cies be artificially reestablished? Only a few 

 papers about western coal mining directly ex- 

 amine the time factor. f\/lost reclamation 

 research has focused on the how-to-do-it proc- 

 ess with little or no emphasis on the long-term 

 results of natural or deliberate revegetation. Suc- 

 cessful long-term results are predicted largely 

 on the basis of "effective" post-mining manage- 

 ment (Hodder, 1978, p. 154). Moreover, organized 

 plans for long-term monitoring and study of test 

 plots are generally lacking except at a few 

 places such as the West Decker mine in Mon- 

 tana (Richardson and others, 1975; B.Z. Richard- 



son, U.S. Forest Service, oral communication, 

 1980). Without such long-term monitoring, much 

 valuable data may be lost. A more holistic re- 

 search program, one that emphasizes the inter- 

 relationship between components and external 

 factors affecting reclamation, is warranted. 



THE TEST OF TIME 



Although a growing body of information at- 

 tests to the early increase of productivity in the 

 first 4 to 5 years of revegetation, whether by 

 natural succession (Schumacher and others, 

 1977, p. 14) or by planting (John Lovell, oral com- 

 munication, 1978; Packer and others, 1981, U.S. 

 Geological Survey and Montana Department of 

 State Lands, 1979, p. IV-34), this increase is 

 followed by a leveling off or a decrease in plant 

 growth and density. Packer, however, believes 

 (oral communication, 1979) that what is seen at 



47 



