Figure 3.— A 100-ton truck leaves a box cut at the West Decker mine in Montana. Light-colored sandy overburden, about 

 90 feet thick, is stripped on two benches (avi/ay from the viewer) leaving spoil piles (left). Overburden will be stripped from 

 the flat plain (center) as far as the distant buttes (background). The 52-foot coalbed is exposed in the box cut. September 

 1975. 



planted with mostly nonnative trees and shrubs 

 on an experimental basis in cooperation with 

 State and Federal agencies (Berg, 1975, 

 p. 82-83). Although evidence of deliberate seed- 

 ing attempts can be inferred from the existence 

 of nonnative grasses, the history is incomplete. 

 Recent reclamation efforts have been guided 

 by both existing and proposed Federal and State 

 regulations (Imhoff and others, 1976). In the 

 1970's, government agencies, working in part 

 with the universities, developed much of what is 

 presently known about western reclamation 

 technology. The state of the art is now believed 

 sufficiently established that a major Federal pro- 

 gram of the U.S. Forest Service, the Surface En- 

 vironment and Mining Program (SEAM), changed 

 its emphasis from research and development to 

 assuring that reclamation technology is avail- 

 able to users (Scholz, 1978). Much of the result of 

 the SEAM program and other similar government 

 and university research work (Burbank, 1978; 



Brown, 1977) has been applied at one or more 

 mines through experimental techniques and 

 plantings done in cooperation with the mining 

 companies. The mining companies are doing 

 some testing and experimenting on their own 

 (Deveraux, 1978) as new techniques are devel- 

 oped or as they are mandated by government 

 regulation. 



In 1977, the Surface Mining Control and Recla- 

 mation Act (SMCRA) was passed by Congress. 

 This law called for the creation of a new Federal 

 regulatory agency. The U.S. Office of Surface 

 Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (GSM), 

 whose principle duties include (1) administering 

 the programs for controlling surface coal mining 

 operations; (2) reviewing and approving or dis- 

 approving State programs for controlling mining 

 operations and reclaiming mined lands; (3) in- 

 specting for regulatory compliance; (4) issuing 

 cease-and-desist orders; (5) ordering the super- 

 vision or revocation of any permit that does not 



