Reference Books

Coal Mine Land Reforestation

GUIDEBOOKS ON RECLAMATION WITH TREES

GENERAL REFERENCES ON RECLAMATION WITH TREES

GENERAL REFERENCES ON FORESTRY

GUIDEBOOKS ON RECLAMATION WITH TREES
Ashby, W. Clark and Willis G. Vogel. 1993. Tree Planting on Minelands in the Midwest: A Handbook. (7.4MB pdf) Coal Research Center, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.	Well-developed, simple guide to tree planting on Midwestern mine lands. This small, inexpensive book is an excellent guide to reclamation staff.
Berg, W.A. and W.G. Vogel, 1973. Toxicity of Acid Coal-Mine Spoils to Plants. In Ecology and Reclamation of Devastated Land: Volume 1. R.J. Hutnik and G. Davis (editors) Garden and Breach Publishing, New York.	This article is an excellent description of how acid mine spoils can be toxic to plants and limit biological activity and reclamation success.
Clark, F.B. 1954. Forest Planting on Strip-mined Land in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Technical Paper 141. U.S. Forest Service, Central States Forest Experiment Station, Columbus, Ohio.	Clark writes a short report describing tree planting success on a wide range of unreclaimed mine sites in the Middle West. Provides a historical context to tree planting efforts. Clark emphasizes soil characteristics and impacts upon plants.
Croxton, W.C. 1928. Revegetation of Illinois Coal Stripped Lands. Ecology, 9:155-175.	A very early study of natural succession and revegetation efforts of strip-mined lands in the Middle West, Croxton's narrative struggles with the problem of acid-forming overburden and impacts upon planting successive. Many problems discussed in this study are identical to those posed today.
Limstrom, G.A. 1960. Forestation of Strip-mined Land in the Central States. USDA, Agricultural Handbook, 166, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.	This is an excellent report on tree-planting and mine lands. Limstrom emphasizes using locally adapted plants grown from seeds and plant materials from similar mine lands.
Vogel, Willis G. 1981. A Guide to Revegetating Coal Minesoils in the Eastern United States. USDA, Forest Service Publication, NE68.	This small publication is familiar to a whole generation of reclamation managers. Simple and direct, some of the introduced species discussed have become serious pests since publication.
Vogel, Willis G. 1987. A Manual for Training Reclamation Inspectors in the Fundamentals of Soil and Revegetation. Soil and Water Conservation Society, Ankeny, IA.	This appears to be a revision of the Vogel, 1981 publication mentioned above. Revised and updated, it should be revised and updated again to account for serious exotic plant species that have become invasive pests.
Young, James A. and Cheryl G. Young. 1986. Collecting, Processing and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.	This is a good small volume describing seed collection, processing and germination of many of the commercially unavailable plants that can be very effective or drastically disturbed lands. Plant materials from wild plants often adapted to soil conditions found on drastically disturbed lands and can be used by reclamation staff on difficult sites.

GENERAL REFERENCES ON RECLAMATION WITH TREES
Bradshaw, A.D. and M.J. Chadwick. 1980. The Restoration of Land: The Ecology and Reclamation of Derelict and Degraded Land. University of CalIAOrnia Press, Berkely.	Excellent textbook on reclamation science from an ecological perspective. The book discusses in depth, soil and plant interactions, ecosystem functioning and succession on drastically disturbed lands. Excellent discussion of mine soil development and plant communities. The book is an excellent foundation for professional staff seeking to plant trees on mine lands.
US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and US Department of Energy. 2002. Market Based Mine Land Reclamation	A packet of fact sheets designed to demonstrate the environmental, economic, and social benefits of reclaiming mined land to a forestry use. The benefits of planting trees has appeal to a wide range of parties including mine operators, utilities, environmental organizations, watershed groups, local communities, land management companies, schools and universities, and wildlife agencies and organizations. The market-based approach maximizes opportunities for partnering among these various groups.
US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and Coal Research Center, Southern Illinois University. 2002. Proceedings of Market-Based Approaches to Mined Land Reclamation & Reforestation: A Technical Interactive Forum	The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is very interested in the concept of Eco-assets because it introduces addition benefits that have not previously been explored. Sound reclamation is a multi-faceted process involving a wide variety of people and interests. The people at this forum come from a broad range of interests representing State reclamation and forestry programs, land owners, environmental and community groups, mine operators, utilities, forest industries, academia, and Federal agencies.
US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and Indiana Division of Reclamation. 2007. Assessment of Reforestation on Reclaimed Indiana Surface Coal Mine Sites	A Review of Forest Land Uses Released from Bond for Analysis of Reclaimed Indiana Bat Habitat Conditions
US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Mid-Continent Region. 2006. Reforestation Efforts in OSM's Mid-Continent Region	An update on any major reforestation accomplishments within the Region and a general discussion on historical and current reforestation efforts,
Munshower, Frank F. 1994. Practical Handbook of Disturbed Land Revegetation. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida.	This is an excellent volume on reclamation techniques for the western United States. The ideas and principles have far more applications in the Midwest and East than many would suppose. The quality of the discussion of revegetation practices is unequalled for clarity and practical applications in the field.

GENERAL REFERENCES ON FORESTRY
Braun, Lucy. 1950. Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. The Free Press, New York.	Braun's is a classic ecological work on the eastern deciduous forests. Although some of the successional ecology concepts are somewhat dated, Braun's descriptions of the forest associations are unmatched in scope and breadth.
Harlow, William M. 1996. The Textbook of Dendrology. Eighth Edition. McGraw Hill Book Company, New York.	Basic entry level text for forestry students, this textbook still has excellent identification photographs for commercial species of North America. Regional field guides of trees may be more helpful in local identification, but Harlow's text has excellent uses, including an informative narrative that field guides lack.
Kimmons, J.P. 1987. Forest Ecology. Macmillan Publishers, New York.	Foundation forest ecology text and is extremely useful to the resource manager. Kimmon's explanations of energy flows, hydrology and nutrient cycles are excellent.
Peattie, Donald Culross. 1948. A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.	This volume, and its counterpart Western Trees by the same author provides an excellent narrative combining natural history with environmental history. Both volumes are very entertaining with a great deal of interesting information.
Sternberg, Guy and Jim Wilson. 1995. Landscaping with Native Trees. Chapters Publishing Limited, Shelburne, VT.	Beautiful photographs and excellent narrative descriptions of the common tree species of the Central United States can be found in this book. Although emphasis is on landscaping the book is very informative and interesting for the natural resource manager. Although it looks like a coffee table book, the narrative is first rate.
USDA. 1949. Trees: The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1949. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.	One of the great agricultural yearbook series that are available in used bookstores and antique shops, the 1949 edition on trees is loaded with information. Much of this information is found in other government publications of the era, but the volume remains useful from a resource perspective and as a historical document.
USDA Forest Service, 1974. Seeds of Woody Plants in the United States: Agricultural Handbook 450. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.	This is an extremely useful handbook for all natural resource managers. The photographs of seeds are helpful in identification and the thorough text is very informative. J.A. and C.G. Young have revised Agricultural Handbook 450 under the title of Seeds of Woody Plants in North America: Revised Edition. Enlarged to include many western shrubs and wildlife-important species. Some material from the original publication has been left out. Both volumes complement and complete the other.
USDA, Forest Service. 1990. Silvics of North America: Volume I, Conifers; Volume II, Hardwoods. Agricultural Handbook 654. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.	Two volume set with descriptions and range maps for all commercially important tree species of North America. Extensive descriptions of each species make Handbook 654 the best source for basic tree information. These volumes provide critical information to the reclamation specialists in selecting appropriate tree species.
Wilson, Brayton F. 1984. The Growing Tree. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst.	An excellent small volume on tree physiology that can be very useful to resource managers.