Revegetation of post-mined land using directly planted native and local shrub species

摘要

Directly planting propagules from nearby undisturbed (pre-mined) land can decrease the time required to establish multiple layers of forest vegetation cover on post-mined land in the Canadian boreal forest. Typically, trees are planted, but the majority of native shrub species and forbs are left to regenerate unassisted, which may take decades. Hand collecting vegetative propagules from surrounding pre-mined land and directly planting these propagules on post-mined land may be the only method to successfully establish key shrub species and forbs. Directly planting propagules has several advantages over seeding or out-planting nursery grown stock: the vegetation will consist of species that are native and local to the area, there is no cost for the propagules, numerous species regenerate by vegetative reproduction and thus can be transplanted and new vegetative propagules are available for collection each year.