The Office of Surface Mining recently issued a rule to encourage the diversity of plant species on reclaimed mine lands and remove impediments to planting trees.

The rule makes minor changes to OSM’s regulations governing topsoil replacement and revegetation success standards. It was published in the Federal Register on Aug. 30. The rule includes provisions that allow states more flexibility to use success standards and sampling techniques. It also makes the timing of revegetation success measurements consistent nationwide.

“This is an opportunity to make some relatively minor but significant changes that should pay big dividends in enhanced environmental values,” said Brent Wahlquist, acting director of OSM. “It is our hope that this revegetation effort, combined with our recent reforestation initiatives, is going to take us a long way toward restoring mined lands to the kind of healthy, thriving and diverse landscapes that existed before mining took place.”

A public outreach initiative to review and assess the revegetation regulations was conducted before publishing the proposed rule. The rule is being issued in response to several revegetation issues that have been raised both by the public and internally within OSM.