Excerpt
CONCERN by society and regulatory agencies over reclamation of surface mines in the semiarid western United States has put pressure on mine operators to return mined land to a productive, aesthetically pleasing condition. An important part of the reclamation process is soil preservation and replacement—the process of removing topsoil and subsoil from the land to be mined, then respreading it after mining so the land can be returned to its former use. While many operators are compelled to reclaim land as economically as possible (8), soil preservation and replacement can be costly.
Enough research on topsoil and subsoil handling on surface mines in the West has been done to offer practical procedures. But first, what is topsoil and subsoil?
Some researchers define topsoil as only that soil of the A horizon. Others use the term to refer to all solum material that will sustain plant growth. Here, we use topsoil in reference only to the A and E soil horizons of the four master soil horizons (48 Federal Register 22100, May 16, 1983). We use subsoil to refer to B horizon material, unless otherwise stated. Where the research cited does not clearly identify the genetic horizons used in …
Footnotes
Norman E. Hargis is a research associate and Edward F. Redente is an associate professor in the Department of Range Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80523. This review was part of a larger study funded by the Office of Surface Mining/State Mining and Minerals Resources Research Institute and Utah International Inc.
- Copyright 1984 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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