NATIVE TREE SURVIVAL AND HERBACEOUS ESTABLISHMENT ON AN EXPERIMENTALLY RECLAIMED APPALACHIAN COAL MINE 1

On a surface coal mine in southern West Virginia, the forestry reclamation approach was applied while quantifying the effects of substrate type and seeding prescription on survival and growth of native tree species and herbaceous vegetation. Four substrates were used: weathered sandstone (brown), unweathered sandstone/shale mix (gray), mixture of weathered and unweathered rock (mixed), and a mixture of the soil solum and unconsolidated soil parent material (soil). Each substrate treatment was split into two subplots; one seeded with a tree-compatible herbaceous seed mixture and one unseeded. Trees were planted in March 2012, measured for initial height in June 2012, and measured for height and survival in late October 2012. Herbaceous groundcover and species richness were measured during the growing season. After one growing season, mean percent survival and growth of planted trees differed among tree species and seeding treatments. There were no differences in tree survival among substrate treatments. Of planted tree species, survival was higher for hawthorn and black cherry (~85%) than for most other species and lowest for Eastern white pines (25.3%) and shagbark hickory (24.3%). Unseeded treatments had higher tree survival (70.4%) than seeded treatments (56.4%). Of the trees which survived the first growing season, black cherry, red oak, sugar maple, and white oak showed differences in height growth related to experimental treatments. Black cherry and red oak trees grew more in the unseeded treatment, compared to the seeded treatment. White oaks grew the most in the brown sandstone treatment. Sugar maples grew the most in the seeded mixed treatment. Gray and soil substrate treatments had the highest total herbaceous richness and the soil treatment had the highest volunteer richness. Seeded treatments had less bare ground and higher mean herbaceous species richness than unseeded subplots. Leaving the landscape unseeded facilitated tree establishment, but the impact of seeding on the future understory community remains unclear. Soil appears superior to rock spoils for re-establishing a diverse understory. We expect that the influence of substrate and seeding treatments will become clearer after additional growing seasons.