Revegetating mined land for grazing

Excerpt

ONE-HALF to two-thirds of the coal recoverable by surface mining in North America underlies the Northern Great Plains of the United States and the prairie province region of Canada. In Alberta, for example, more than 50 percent of the proven coal reserves and up to 90 percent of the unproven, recoverable coal reserves are in the plains region of the province. In eastern Montana coal underlies more than 1 million acres of land. In the United States about half the coal mining expected to occur in the Northern Great Plains will take place in a five-county area of Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota (6).

Most of this land to be mined in the Northern Great Plains is rangeland, much of it used for livestock grazing or to provide forage for wildlife (21). After mining, most of the land will revert to its previous use.

As human populations increase over the next several decades, rangelands are expected to help supply an increasing share of red meat products. For example, cattle sinventories in Montana may increase from 3.3 million in 1985 to more than 4.2 million by 2005 (18). Similar increases are projected for the other states …