Reclaiming Wildlife Habitat At The Buckskin Mine

Abstract

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and supporting regulations contain numerous requirements for the reclamation of wildlife habitat. However, these requirements are often contradicted by other requirements. Historically, regulatory agencies have tended to place more emphasis on those requirements that act to impede the reclamation of wildlife habitat then they have on those requirements that restore and/or enhance wildlife habitat. Wildlife habitat is a principal postmining land use over most of the coalmine lands in Wyoming. The Buckskin Mine has prepared a detailed reclamation plan to enhance wildlife habitat. This paper will present portions of that plan and examine the federal and state of Wyoming regulations that require reclamation of wildlife habitat and suggest permitting strategies to overcome many of these conflicting requirements.

Determining usages in post‐mining sites according to landscape design approaches

“…Following the literature review, it became apparent that the active factors of all design approaches, regardless of their definitions, included humans or nature or both (mixed). Studies made in this regard revealed a total of 62 nature or human-oriented uses for topography, water, and vegetation as far as the uses of landscaping elements are concerned (Table 3) (Arbogast et al, 2000;Arnegger, Woltering, & Job, 2010;Benson, 2002;Coghlan & Buckley, 2013;Görcelio glu, 2002;Kivinen, 2017;Lintukangas & Suihkonen, 2009;Lintukangas, Suihkonen, Salomäki, & Selonen, 2012;Mborah et al, 2016;Salminen, 2007;Strasdas, 2006;Wang, 2013).…”