The overall purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. We are currently estimating the acreage of lands in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania mined under SMCRA and reclaimed to non-forested post-mining land uses that are not currently under active management, and therefore can be considered as available for carbon sequestration. To determine actual sequestration under different forest management scenarios, a field study was installed as a 3 x 3 factorial in a random complete block design with three replications at each of three locations, one each in Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. The treatments included three forest types (white pine, hybrid poplar, mixed hardwood) and three silvicultural regimes (competition control, competition control plus tillage, competition control plus tillage plus fertilization). Each individual treatment plot is 0.5 acres. Each block of nine plots is 4.5 acres, and the complete installation at each site is 13.5 acres.

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The overall purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. In this quarterly report we present data that show the spatial distribution of carbon in mine soils. Soil carbon data from deep soil pits from grassland minelands located in Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia were analyzed to determine the vertical distribution and variability of soil organic carbon (SOC) down to a 2-m depth. Regression analyses were used to describe and model the distribution by soil depth of C(wt%), BD fines (g cm -3 ), and fines(vol%) in mine soils. The volume of excavated mine soil samples was transformed in terms of costs of digging and sampling, including sample collection and preparation, and C(wt%) analysis, in order to determine the maximum costeffective depth (MCD) for carbon inventorying on the mined sites analyzed. Based on the horizontal variation of SOC(g m -2 ), we determined the sampling intensity required to achieve a desired accuracy of the amount of sequestered SOC(g m -2 ) at certain probability levels. The MCD and sampling intensity measurements were used to determine the minimum detectable difference (MDD) of SOC(g m -2 ) between two consecutive carbon inventories. We also proposed a method to determine the minimum number of years before a future C inventory event is carried out so that the measured SOC(g m -2 ) differences were greater than MDD. We used geostatistical analyses procedures to determine spatial dependence predictability of surface SOC(g m -2 ) data on the minelands analyzed. Kriging techniques were used to create surface SOC(g m -2 ) maps for the sites in Ohio and West Virginia. The average C sequestration rate in the surface soil layer for the Ohio (age 9) sites was estimated at 124 g C m -2 yr -1 , and it was estimated at 107 g C m -2 yr -1 for the West Virginia sites (age 4). Because of the young age of the Virginia sites, 0.2 and 1 year old, we came to a decision that C sequestration rates would be inappropriate at this stage of their development, as these soils are expected to change with time.

The overall purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. We are currently estimating the acreage of lands in VA, WV, KY, OH, and PA mined under SMCRA and reclaimed to non-forested post-mining land uses that are not currently under active management, and therefore can be considered as available for carbon sequestration. To determine actual sequestration under different forest management scenarios, a field study was installed as a 3 x 3 factorial in a random complete block design with three replications at each of three locations, Ohio (Figure 1), West Virginia (Figure 2), and Virginia (Figure 3). The treatments included three forest types (white pine, hybrid poplar, mixed hardwood) and three silvicultural regimes (competition control, competition control plus tillage, competition control plus tillage plus fertilization). Each individual treatment plot is 0.5 acres. Each block of nine plots is 4.5 acres, and the complete installation at each site is 13.5 acres. During the reporting period we compiled and evaluated all soil properties measured on the study sites. Statistical analysis of the properties was conducted, and first year survival and growth of white pine, hybrid poplars, and native hardwoods was assessed. Hardwood species survived better at all sites than white pine or hybrid poplar. Hardwood survival across treatments was 80%, 85%, and 50% for sites in Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio, respectively, while white pine survival was 27%, 41%, and 58%, and hybrid poplar survival was 37%, 41%, and 72% for the same sites, respectively. Hybrid poplar height and diameter growth were superior to those of the other species tested, with the height growth of this species reaching 126.6cm after one year in the most intensive treatment at the site in Virginia. To determine carbon in soils on these sites, we developed a cost-effective method for partitioning total soil carbon to pedogenic carbon and geogenic carbon in mine soils. We are in the process of evaluating the accuracy and precision of the proposed carbon partitioning technique for which we are designing an experiment with carefully constructed mine soil samples. In a second effort, as part of a mined land reforestation project for carbon sequestration in southwestern Virginia we implemented the first phase of the carbon monitoring protocol that was recently delivered to DOE.

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