Young Forest Composition and Growth on a Reclaimed Appalachian Coal Surface Mine After Nine Years

A 29-ha mine site in Buchanan County, VA, was reclaimed using methods intended to produce favorable conditions for reforestation and planted with forest trees in early 2002. After soil grading, the site was mapped for forest site quality considering rock type, aspect, and soil compaction. Trees of eleven species and one shrub species were prescribed for planting as four species mixes, each targeted for conditions on different locations within the mine site. In 2010, 68 measurement plots, each 0.01 ha in size, were established on a gridded pattern. Within each, soils were characterized and living trees and shrubs were measured for breast-height diameter and height. Data were analyzed to assess density and volume, overall and by species, and to evaluate how these metrics responded to soil and site conditions. After nine growing seasons, 24 tree and three shrub species were recorded as growing on the site; most living trees were non-planted native species. Prominent volunteers were black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum), and sweet birch (Betula lenta); prominent planted species were ash (Fraxinus spp.), white oak (Quercus alba), and American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). Volunteers established and grew best on more acidic soils, on sloped areas where soils were not compacted, and on areas rated as having higher forest site quality. Community composition and volume also varied with these site features. Planted trees' species composition varied with planting mix and site conditions. On non-compacted soil areas, planted trees' overall density and volume metrics exhibited few differences that were directly related to site conditions, in part because species selected for and planted preferentially on areas with soil properties poorly suited for most native trees were able to establish and grow.