Revegetation Research on Coal Mine Overburden Materials in Interior to Southcentral Alaska

Abstract

Plant material, and planting and fertilizer scheduling studies were conducted on coal mine overburden materials in the Nenana coal field at the Usibelli coal mine near Healy, in the Matanuska coal field at the Jonesville mine north of Anchorage, and at two test pits in the Beluga coal field west of Anchorage. With proper fertilization a number of grasses were found to maintain adequate cover for soil stabilization purposes over the five-to-seven-years of the various trials. The consistently good performers were entries of tufted hairgrass, Bering hairgrass, red fescue, hard fescue polar-grass, and Kentucky bluegrass. Most were native to Alaska. Some northern -selected materials of alfalfa did well on sites below timberline with near neutral soils. Fertilizer responses and indicated nutrient requirements indicated a preferred schedule of fertilizer applications in the first and third, and possibly fifth or sixth growing years. Seedings conducted from spring, in late May, into summer, in late July, produced equally satisfactory results.