Surface mining for coal represents one of the most severe anthropogenic disturbances in the United States, and has affected nearly 1 million hectares of land. Required reclamation of these landscapes post-mining is minimal, and most are planted with invasive grasses and shrubs. However, it has been shown these cool season grasslands can be beneficial habitat for grassland birds declining elsewhere.
The Wilds is a conservation, education, and research facility located on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed strip mine land. At the Wilds we have undertaken restoration efforts to replace these low diversity cool season grasslands with high diversity prairies. Vegetation and soil analyses focus on the effectiveness of our restoration efforts and how prairie species might change the soil microbial community. The long term question is if the deeper root systems of the native grasses help to reduce soil compaction and to increase soil organic carbon and soil fertility. The response of wildlife such as insects and grassland birds to prairie installations has been studied as well, to evaluate how other species might benefit from restoration efforts.
Results/Conclusions
To further understand how restored prairies differ from cool season grasslands, we have begun long term monitoring of prairie vegetation and soil microbial activity. So far, we have shown that soil becomes healthier with time since reclamation, as indicated by microbial biomass, however there is not a clear relationship between prairies and soil. As soil health improves, we can expect bottom up improvements across all trophic levels. Vegetation diversity and soil beta-glucosidase enzyme activity decreases with time since prairie restoration. However, prairies increase the cover of native plants on the landscape. Different wildlife species may respond differently to restoration- for instance, pollinators are positively influenced by increases in floral resources while some grassland bird species are negatively impacted by prairie installations.
Overall, results on this landscape shows that engineering sustainable diverse ecosystems following mining requires more work and different methods than current reclamation laws require. Restoring prairie is beneficial for some, but not all species. Therefore, mixing cool season and warm season grasslands on reclaimed minelands across the landscape may maximize wildlife diversity.