## [**http://www.tricities.com/tri/business/local/article/-TRI_2008_03_19_0006/9427/**](http://www.tricities.com/tri/business/local/article/-TRI_2008_03_19_0006/9427/) 

## Partnership Seeks To Reforest Former Surface Mine Site

Kathy Still/Bristol Herald Courier\
Published: March 18, 2008

The Nature Conservancy; the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and
Energy; and Virginia Tech are working together to capture carbon dioxide
the old-fashioned way -- by using trees.

The partnership is striving to restore 80 acres of land to native
Appalachian forest so the trees planted can absorb carbon dioxide, a
greenhouse gas that many say leads to global warming.

Planting trees can reduce the effects of climate change because the
trees store carbon. The partners also say the forest helps watershed
conditions, especially in the Clinch and Powell river areas.

\"Climate change presents one of the greatest environmental challenges
in human history, but through innovative science, we are developing
pragmatic solutions that can reduce the pace and impact of climate
change,\" Brad Kreps, director of the conservancy's Clinch Valley
Program, said Tuesday.

The partners are planting 600 trees per acre, which totals 46,000 native
Appalachian hardwood trees such as various oaks.

\"Its legacy of coal mining and its globally significant biological
diversity make the Clinch Valley an excellent setting to strike a
balance between our nation's energy needs and desire to conserve forests
and reduce carbon emissions.\"

The group is using money from a settlement Dominion Resources reached
with the federal Environmental Protection Agency on air quality issues
to pay for the project. Kreps said those involved hope to have a final
tally on what it costs to return post-mined land to native forestland as
the project progresses.

\"It's fairly expensive,\" Kreps said. \"This is definitely a pilot
program.\"

The Forestland Group, an organization that works to manage private
forests in an environmentally sound manner, owns the parcel of land in
the Flint Gap section of Russell County that the partners are using for
the reforestation project. The site is located near Dante, Va.

Work on the site began in November when Virginia Tech researchers found
a way to measure how much carbon dioxide would be absorbed as the trees
grow. Those involved hope to use the site as a pilot project for
converting more post-mined land to forest.

Planting trees on former strip mines has not always been easy or even
encouraged. The soil was once deeply compacted during the reclamation
process, which made it very difficult for trees to take root on the
hard, unforgiving soil.

Changes in reclamation methods now make it easier for coal companies and
others to re-establish trees on the post-mine land.

\"Through this pilot project, we hope to demonstrate that, with the
right approach, former mined lands can once again become healthy and
productive native forests,\" Richard Davis, a reclamation specialist
with DMME, said in a news release. \"The effective reforestation of
mined lands is something that our agency has committed itself to, and we
hope to undertake more of these projects in the future.\"

The partners are also following closely the work done previously at
Virginia Tech's Powell River Project, an outdoor laboratory that
explores various uses for post-mined land, Kreps said.

DMME and the conservancy got the site ready last winter by cutting and
mulching various small trees and shrubs planted years ago during the
original reclamation.

Kreps said the site also had to be fertilized because the mix of soil
used to reclaim the land has a variety of acidic and alkalinity levels.
The site preparation work -- which also included ripping away some of
the heavily compacted soil -- will help the trees easier take root, he
said.

<kstill@bristolnews.com> \| (276) 679-1338

⨪