Under this program, sponsored by Industry, the Farm Bureau, and the Department of Conservation, 79% of the area that has been mined to date has been successfully revegetated. The remaining 21% is a natural lag and represents lands newly mined or areas that have not weathered to the point where they will support revegetation. The demand for recreation lands and home sites where water is available is constantly increasing. At least 13% of the revegetated area is now being used for public recreation or for home sites. Near the more heavily populated sections the price commanded by mined territory containing good lakes often exceeds the value of the land before it was mined.
These lakes, formed in the final cuts and in low lying areas of the strip mines, furnish the only clean, clear water available for public recreation and fishing in the south western part of the state.
The reforestation being carried on under the reclamation program consists of planting several species of pines, as well as a large variety of our native deciduous trees. The older plantations are being used as a guide as the research started in the last eight years has not progressed far enough to give conclusive results on many points. Until the last few years the Agricultural Experiment Station has devoted little or no time to the problem of reclaiming strip mine spoil. The area of the state that is involved, less than 1/4 of 1%, has been too small to justify the use of their limited funds. However, since funds have been made available to that Station, through the Industry, to establish research fellowships, the Station has given whole hearted cooperation. The information being obtained through these fellowships and through work being carried on cooperatively with the Central States Forest Experiment Station is going to answer many of the questions on reclamation we have been confronted with.
Included in our reforestation has been a liberal scattering of black walnut. A breakdown of species is not available on much of the earlier work but since 1940, when accurate records have been maintained, we have planted 239,000 black walnut seedlings or seed. Initial survival is not high, averaging only about 50 percent but we still have a general distribution of seed trees that are providing a source of seed for natural reproduction. Trees from plantings made in 1927 to 1934 have grown well and we now have walnut trees over 10 inches in diameter and 60 feet in height. The average for all areas would probably not exceed 5 inches but individual trees have made remarkable growth. These trees are only seedlings, but they are bearing heavily and their fruit is sought by the local people.
In 1946 and 1947, budded stock of walnuts and pecans and seedlings of Chinese chestnut were obtained from Mr. Wilkinson and were set out on six selected areas. A wide variety of sites were picked and a wide variation in both survival and growth has been obtained. No special treatment was given the areas where the trees were to be planted nor were the trees mulched or watered after planting. Even under these rugged conditions we have a survival of over 60 percent of all trees. The walnut trees now range from 5 to 12 feet in height and the pecans up to 6 feet. The chestnuts vary in form from low spreading plants 4-1/2 to 5 feet in height and as much as 8 feet across to well formed trees 8 to 10 feet tall. Pruning on all three species to produce a clear butt log has been started.
Pasture seeding on areas high enough in available lime to support legumes is following a pattern laid down by three years of graduate study, financed by the Indiana Coal Producers Association, at Purdue and by work done by the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station under a similar arrangement with the Illinois Coal Strippers Association.
Unfortunately, we have only a small portion of the spoil area in Indiana that is suitable for the development of improved pasture. Not over 10 percent of the area mined to date is good enough and that percentage will decrease. Modern operations are deeper than the early ones and are exposing more hard rock and shale. Fortunately, most of these areas can be reforested after three or four years. In exceptional cases less than 5 percent of the area mined the exposed materials contain large amounts of sulfides. These break down into acid that in some cases require ten to twelve years to leach out before revegetation can be undertaken.
The fact that these stands of trees established on raw spoil will produce merchantable timber has been proven. In 1951, an area was clear cut at the Enos mine in Pike county. The pines on this tract were planted in 1933-34. The products from that cutting, peeled posts and poles, were sold to the Indiana Wood Preserving Company at the rate of $335.59 per acre. An increase in value of $16.48 per acre per year.
Pasture, forests and fishing are not the only products. Game of all varieties is abundant in the worked out areas. One of the largest herds of white tailed deer in the state, now referred to as the strip mine herd, is located in northern Warrick and southern Pike counties. In the Indiana deer season of 1951, the first open season since 1893, the second largest recorded kill came from the strip mine herd. The Pitman-Robertson report of the Division of Fish and Game carries the following comment on deer from that area. "The superiority of the diversified range of the strip mine herd was reflected in above average weights and measurements in most age classes."
From the evidence at hand, there is every reason to believe that most of the mined area will again be highly productive forest land. It has completed the entire cycle of land use. Originally it supported magnificent stands of hardwood timber. This timber was cut and the lands devoted to farming. Poor management and erosion soon depleted the supply of top soil and many areas were abandoned to broom sedge, blackberries and gullies. Because it was close enough to the surface the coal has been removed and the areas replanted to many of the same species of trees.