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Multi-State Partnership

Integrating the Forestry Reclamation Approach for Reclamation of American Chestnut and Oaks in the Mid-Continent Region. Multi-State Partnership. Purdue University Southern Illinois University Peabody Energy Indiana and Illinois Departments of Natural Resources

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Multi-State Partnership

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  1. Integrating the Forestry Reclamation Approach for Reclamation of American Chestnut and Oaks in the Mid-Continent Region

  2. Multi-State Partnership • Purdue University • Southern Illinois University • Peabody Energy • Indiana and Illinois Departments of Natural Resources • Indiana DNR, Divisions of Reclamation and Forestry • Illinois DNR, Divisions of Land Reclamation and Forestry

  3. Location of the Study Site • Peabody Energy’s Somerville Mine near Oakland City, IN • Mining operations recently completed • Grading and soil deposition in Fall 2009

  4. Focus and Overall ObjectivesWithin the framework of SMCRA regulations: • Integrate soil replacement techniques associated with the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) to establish productive high-value hardwood forests on reclaimed coal mined lands in the Midwestern Coal Region. • Devise a practical, cost-effective, and efficient management approach that promotes seedling growth to reach free-to-grow status sooner and avert animal browsing, thereby facilitating mine reclamation success.

  5. Study Design • Examine effects of soil replacement strategies on survival, growth, rooting strategies, and nutrient uptake of blight resistant hybrid American chestnut and oak seedlings • Compare currently approved soil replacement strategy followed by grading to AOC to replaced soil dumped in piles • Builds on studies in other regions but emphasizes below-ground dynamics (rooting strategies) as affected by soil physical and nutritional properties • Provides for assessment of the feasibility hand planting vs. machine planting in loose soil • Provides a demonstration site specific to the Midwestern Coal Region

  6. Background • Post Implementation of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) • Reforestation related to soil, site, and competing vegetation • Recent strategies in soil replacement • Advent of the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) • Create a suitable rooting medium no less than 4’ deep • No grading or loosely graded • Ground cover compatible with growing trees • Plant multiple tree species • Use proper planting techniques

  7. Experimental Procedures/Methodologies

  8. Species: 1+0, bareroot, standard nursery grown • Northern Red Oak • Bur Oak • Swamp White Oak • American Chestnut (BC3F1) Blight • Resistant

  9. Soil Replacement • Soil graded to AOC • Standard soil replacement and lightly graded • Soil dumped in piles, minimum 40% overlap, • not graded

  10. Fertilization/Ground Cover • Nitrogen (N) 50-75 lbs/acre • Phosphorus (P) 80-100 lbs/acre • (400 lb/acre di-ammonium phosphate) • Perennial Ryegrass 10 lbs/acre • Annual Ryegrass 5 lbs/acre • Ladino or White Clover 3 lbs/acre

  11. Seedling Planting/Herbicide Treatments • Hand planted at 9 ft. x 9 ft. spacing (540 trees/acre) • Roundup and Princep (2 ft. circle) • Machine plant adjacent buffer strips with down-the-row herbicide application • Raptor perches erected throughout the area • Deer fencing

  12. Experimental Design • Split plot design with 4 replications (2 x 4) • Equal number of each tree species planted randomly in each plot • (67 trees of each species in each plot) LD SP Block 1 SP LD Block 2 SP LD Block 3 LD SP Block 4 Buffer Zone

  13. Measurement Variables • Seedling growth, survival, and morphology • Presorted – Reduce Variability • Subsample to Estimate Initial Morphology • Height, Diameter, (RCD), Shoot and Root Volume, Shoot and Root Dry Weight • Field Measurements • Height and RCD – Spring and Fall • Survival and evidence of animal damage • Foliar chlorosis • Excavated Seedlings – 32 seedlings/1 plant per species per replication • Height, RCD, Shoot and Root Volume, Root and Shoot Dry Weight

  14. Seedling Nutrition • Subsample – Nutrient Concentrations in Stems • and Roots • Excavated Seedlings – Nutrient concentrations of • Stems, Roots and Leaves • Seedlings Repeatedly Sampled – Foliage only for • N,P,K values

  15. Seedling Physiology • Mid-day Water Potential

  16. Soil Sampling • Separated by depths 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 cm • Chemical Properties • pH, soluble salts, N, P, K, Ca, Mg • Physical Properties • Bulk Density and Water Holding Capacity • (Undisturbed Cores 0-60 cm / 15 cm sections) • Water Intake (Infiltration Rate) of Simulated Rainfall of 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 inch per hour – May, July, September • Hydraulic Conductivity – Throughout the year • Soil Erosion – Pre and Post Growing Seasons

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