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Wood Residue and Fertilizer Amendment of Bentonite Mine Spoils: I. Spoil and General Vegetation Responses¹

ABSTRACT

Bentonite mine spoils in the northern Great Plains are difficult to rehabilitate and manage because of extreme saline-sodic conditions and high percentage of 2:1 expanding clays. Wood residue and N fertilizer amendments have been shown to promote vegetation establishment on bentonite mine spoils. This study was conducted to determine wood residue and N fertilizer levels necessary to revegetate these mine spoils. Treatments included 0, 45, 90, and 135 Mg ha^–1 of dry ponderosa pine wood residue and N fertilizer rates of 0, 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 kg N Mg^–1 of residue. A uniform P fertilization rate of 90 kg P ha^–1 was used across all treatments. The greatest increase in seeded plant density, canopy cover and aboveground biomass occurred at 90-Mg ha^–1 wood residue fertilized at 2.5 kg N Mg^–1 of residue. Spoils amended at these levels exhibited a mean first-year plant density of 59 seedlings m^–2, second-year plant canopy cover of 67% and second-year plant biomass (dry weight) of 2060 kg ha^–1 compared to the zero wood residue treatment which had a plant density of 14 seedlings m^–2, 8% plant canopy cover, and 80-kg ha^–1 plant biomass.

Key Words: nitrogen • sawmill wastes • forage production • canopy cover

¹ Contribution from the Agricultural Research Service, USDA, High Plains Grasslands Research Station, Cheyenne, WY, in cooperation with the Wyo. Agric. Exp. Stn., Wyo. Dep. of Environ. Quality and the Wyo. State Forestry Div. This project was funded in part by the Wyoming Dep. of Environmental Quality, Land Quality Div., Cheyenne, WY 82002.

² Authors are plant ecologist, Wyo. Dep. of Environ. Quality, Land Quality Div., Cheyenne, WY 82002 (formerly graduate research assistant, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie 82071); soil scientist, USDA-ARS, Cheyenne, WY 82009; associate professor, Range Mange. Div., Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071; Utilization and marketing forester, Wyoming State Forestry Div., Cheyenne, WY 82002.

Received for publication April 2, 1985.