Natural and Planted Flora of the Log Mountain Surfacemined Demonstration Area, Bell County, Kentucky

Abstract

A descriptive study of the naturally invading and planted flora was conducted during 1984-1985 on a 14-and 21-year-old contour surface mine, the 14.2 ha Log Mountain Demonstration Area (LMDA), in Bell County, Kentucky. Six habitats are designated from areas created from coal mining; the 1963 bench, 1970 bench, bench highwalls, mine outslopes, mine seeps, and coal haul-telephone microwave tower road. Twenty-four of 25 woody and herbaceous species (11 indigenous, 13 non-indigenous) have persisted from plantings by personnel of the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service. We recommend 11 native and exotic woody and herbaceous species for planting on coal surface-mined areas. An annotated list of vascular plants comprises 360 taxa (286 indigenous, 74 non-indigenous) in 224 genera from 82 families. Taxa consist of 1 LycopodiophY1a, 1 Equisetophyta, 8 PolypodiophY1a, 7 Pinophyta, and 343 MagnoliophY1a. The most species-rich families are the Asteraceae (64), Poaceae (39), Fabaceae (20), Cyperaceae (16), Rosaceae (13), and Lamiaceae (11). A total of 155 Bell County distribution records were documented. Three threatened Kentucky species (Gentiana decora, Liparis loeselii, Si!ene ovata) were present in refugial habitats created by surface mining. The high species richness has resulted from native and naturalized invading species from the environs, native and exotic planted species, and species from the remnant seed bank. Forest vegetation is a complex mosaic of natural and semi-natural plant communrries on the unplanted and planted areas of LMDA .

Flora of the Fonde Surface Mine Demonstration Area, Bell County, Kentucky

“…We used a regional species-area curve of regional floras to provide a benchmark for relative richness of this mine 1993). Species richness of the Fonde mine is comparable to that found by complete botanical inventories of other mines in this region (Thompson et al 1984and 1996, Thompson and Rafaill in press, Thompson and Wade 1991. The species richness of 299 in this 7.3 ha mine is 87.5 percent of that to be expected in Braun's (1950) Mixed and Western Mesophytic Forest Regions based upon the species-area curve.…”

“…We determined relative abundance of each species during field reconnaissance and recorded abundance in each habitat encountered on the highwall, bench, and outslope. The species abundance categories were those used by Thompson et al (1996): were placed in an unplanted area. More detailed sample methods and results of that study are reported in Wade and Thompson (1999).…”

“…1986). Complete inventories of other mines have also yielded one or more species listed as threatened or endangered (Drake 1991, Thompson et al 1984and 1996, Thompson and Rafaill in press, Thompson and Wade 1991. We used a regional species-area curve of regional floras to provide a benchmark for relative richness of this mine 1993).…”

“…Nevertheless the Fonde mine is of interest because the initial conditions and reclamation procedures were well documented and the development of vegetation and soils has been studied thoroughly. Fonde is one of a suite of five variously reclaimed mines in eastern Kentucky where the development of their vegetation and floras has been studied using complete botanical inventory methods (Thompson et al 1984 and1996;Thompson and Wade, 1991;Rafaill and Thompson in press). Although SMCRA has supplanted reclamation methods that were used upon these mines, their floristic development is of interest because:…”

Scientific Soundness and Socio-Economic Realities in Reclamation for Habitat

“…Admittedly, there was no replication, and valid questions can be asked about whether the colonizers would invade regardless of the presence of seed plots, and whether they are desirable or controllable. The same question has been asked of numerous other reclamation projects such as succession management and wetland construction (Thompson et al 1996;Atkinson et al 1996).…”