| Show S Tree Farming on Out Mined Land Answer to Coal Industry Problem Stripped Acreage Being Turned Into Recreation Centers by Foresters Forest operators have been called on by coal mine operators operators operators oper oper- to provide the answer to toone toone toone one of the most annoying problems problems problems lems which beset the coal industry indus indus- try what try what to do with out mined-out land Tree-farming Tree is proving to be bethe bethe bethe the answer The forest operators operators operators oper oper- knew what it should be because to a lesser degree they had a somewhat related problem problem problem lem which new crops of trees have helped solve Coal miners call the devastated areas of land surface left by strip mining spoils No word could be more fitting than spoil in the way the coal miners use it After the strippers have finished the earth surface looks to the public eye as if it had iad been plowed by blasts from hell The appearance of the stripped acreage to the public eye does not happen to be agriculturally true The fact is that the strip miners' miners steam shovels have turned up virgin soil which otherwise could never have been touched by a plow nor have nourished a seed aerated it by the shovels' shovels action enriched the tumbled earth by mixing through it up broken-up limestone and provided new surface contours which hold runoff runoff runoff run run- off water and raise the water level for the entire surrounding area Trees can turn turn these spoils into sections of recreational paradise but until the foresters have done their work the public remains blissfully ignorant of this The spoils can support vegetation vegetation vegetation tion but the only plants passersby passers- passers by see growing before the tree- tree farmers go to work are jimson weed and an occasional an-occasional volunteer brush The shoveled up earth is full of rocks that would defeat or break the strongest plow and the ridges and depressions left by the shovels' shovels turnover turnover turnover turn turn- over would exhaust livestock pastured pastured pastured pas pas- there if acreage could be put putto putto putto to grass Trees are an answer to this situation Strip Mining Strip mining is practiced in 21 states Mine operators prefer to call it open cut mining By whatever name it is the oldest mining meth meth- od Aboriginal man doubtless first found black stone w would uld burn when he happened to light a fire on onan onan onan an outcrop Then with his rude tools he forced the surface earth back to Public Does Not Understand The public fails to grasp the p pos possibilities s- s of such land It sees a big mud-bordered mud pond surrounded by devastation John Q does not recaLl recall recall re re- re- re call if he ever heard the statement statement statement state state- ment of the U. U S. S Bureau of Mines that strip mining is a means of preventing waste of natural resources resources resources re re- re- re sources that can never be replaced John Q is no geologist no engineer He does not know that most of the strip-mined strip coal veins are less than three feet thick so there would not be room for men to burrow through them if they could go underground and that they cant can't go underground 5 S cs I 4 1 r Giant shovels set aside the overburden and expose the coal because the ceilings of slate over these veins are so thin and crumbly that no mine timbering could support support support sup sup- port them Land Most of the ground which bears i coal close enough to the surface to tobe tobe tobe toI I be strip mined is which government agricultural experts have been urging for years be taken from ordinary agriculture and put back into woodland In Indiana its value before mining averaged only 20 an acre in the nine southern counties where there is open cut mining The college of agriculture of the University of I Illinois rates grazing land on a score of from 1 to 10 One is tops 10 is ble Before the strippers went to work the land they shoveled in that state was rated barely barely par When they got through it was rated good good enough to grow trees The strippers' strippers shovels damaged surface fertility but did not destroy it Stripping shovels do destroy earth top humus The deep fresh earth they bring up to replace it lacks nitrogen If humus and nitrogen can be returned the new soil because it is virgin will be better than it was before It has not been worked out by improper farming or bleached of its minerals by uncontrolled wa wa- va- va ter It has been enriched by minerals minerals min mm- mixed in from below Formerly Formerly Formerly For For- merly below average on the raters' raters scale the land is now well above Trees are regenerating this land and making parks out of waste In Illinois alone only one of the 21 strip- strip mining states acres es of strip- strip mined land in 12 counties have been planted with trees since 1930 and the rate of forestation is increasing increasing- so that trees I S r. r r r 4 1 S S 4 itI Planting young pine trees on stripped acreage uncover more of the hot and lasting fuel The only difference between him and modern strip miners is that with steam shovels we can go deeper deep deep- er after the coal coal SO 60 feet down if necessary Instead of bringing the coal to the surface this method of mining carries the surface down to the coal Surface earth is piled up in steep- steep banked hills with intervening val val- leys The valley at the end usually becomes in the course of nature a alake alake alake lake storing run-off run water have already been planted this year Favorite species for the spoils are black locusts and the evergreen conifers Black locust for three reasons a It is a legume a tree bean b It is a fairly growing fast-growing hardwood hardwood hardwood hard hard- wood tree even in poor soil and sheds each autumn a large fall of big leaves c From the time that it has reached a diameter of four inches it has commercial value first as fence posts later as mine timbers and ties The first of these reasons is most important to the spoil because the peculiar function of the legumes in the book of the soil chemists is that growing bean-growing plants put nitrogen into the soil the soil the critical critical critical crit crit- ical chemical lack of spoiled earth Hum Humus us Humus is plant food decayed vegetation Its chief source is fallen leaves The broad leaves of hardwood hardwood hardwood hard hard- wood trees are its most prolific pro pro- vider The spoil is faced with the problem of getting as much humus on the surface of the up tumbled-up earth as possible as quickly as possible If it were not for the need of layering layering layering lay lay- ering humus on the soil the reforest reforest- er might plant except for black lo locust locust locust lo- lo cust no hardwood trees at all He would concentrate on the evergreens For the conifers members of the great pine family will grow on land too poor to support any other kind of trees Out of the first trees planted by the Open Cut Mining Mining Min Mm- ing Industry of Illinois were vere black locusts and conifers The needle-like needle leaves of these evergreens drop only every three or four years but it is a continuous continuous continuous con con- process Their duff does not make as much humus as broad hardwood leaves but it is good humus S Favorite conifers for strip spoil planting are those which are native to poor soils such soils such scrapple hard-scrapple evergreens as the Scotch pine Norway Norway Norway Nor Nor- way spruce and the red pine which struggles a gallant living out of the thin earth which veils the rocks of northeast Canada and the bleached hillsides of farm abandoned-farm New England and country coal-country Pennsyl Pennsyl- vania Such species are grateful for the mineral food the strip miners' miners shovels shovels shovels els have brought up from under under- ground They grow much more l luxuriantly luxuriantly lux lux- and rapidly on the spoils than they do on the land nearby and far better than they ever did at home A large proportion of the conifers included in the trees planted on Indiana spoils during the are now 10 or 12 feet high covering the steep-pitched steep banks of the lakes created by the up shoveled-up contours At least one observer is reminded by this reforested reforested reforested ested land of the Irish Hills of Michigan Michigan Michigan Michi Michi- gan and the forest-bordered forest lakes of the Adirondacks Forests Replaceable The forest products industries are able to give the open-cut open mine operators operators op op- op- op constructive aid and advice because they formerly faced a problem lem which while not so grave was similar Early loggers looked on forests as if they were mines Both timber and coal are natural resources resources resources re re- re- re sources the prime difference is that once coal has been mined it is gone while forests are replaceable Long ago loggers were faced by a triple economic problem First land had to be cleared before before be be- fore it could be farmed Woodcutters Woodcut Woodcut- were the first pioneers proud of their accomplishment when their axes let light into the swamp the life-giving life sunlight without which corn could not grow Second the country was in urgent need of harvested wood for construction construe construe- tion lumber for fencing and for fuel In years it took seven trillion two hundred billion board feet of lumber to build this country And third the pioneers were faced with seemingly endless mature for for- ests Only swift harvesting of some of them could save them from the deterioration of old age As a matter matter matter mat mat- ter of fact this is still true of thousands of thousands of square miles of in Amer Amer- ica Harvesting virgin ponderosa pine has in some sections resolved itself into a race against the beetle plague of these aged trees Harvesting Harvest Harvest- ing some stands of virgin Douglas fir is a race against internal tree decay If we are to continue to have forests in those sections many old trees need to be removed so that a anew anew anew new young tree crop can row grow Enough farm land was finally cleared In some sections of the country too pinch nuch Some harvested proved unfit to farm Trees were the natural and only useful use use- ful crop these acres would grow New England and southern loggers found themselves harvesting second and even third-growth third trees The evidence was inescapable These trees were volunteer crops Trees can be grown over and over on the same land w ere seed tr trees es had been left in over cut-over areas natural replanting with fire protection provided adequate adequate adequate ade ade- quate new crops But in some areas fire erosion or other causes have destroyed natural seed sources young growth and the surface fertility fertility fer fer- of the soil This was particularly particularly true of abandoned Fires had swept through the waste litter a and d dead snags left behind when the merchantable timber was taken out This had destroyed the humus |
