There is currently much interest in the re-establishment of native (semi-natural) vegetation in mineral workings in the UK. It is expected that future planning consents will have conditions attached which require evidence that the proposed communities have been achieved. At present there is no standard approach. This paper describes a formal sample based method which enables assessment of plant community, species richness and species of particular interest at any point in time and their course of development. The method is illustrated by use of data collected for sown grassland on a restored opencast coal site in South Wales. Further development work is likely to be necessary and comparison with other recently recommended methods is suggested.
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