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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Issue 17 (1954) → Tree Species for Planting Spoil Banks in North Alabama

Tree Species for Planting Spoil Banks in North Alabama

While probably not more than 12, 000 acres have been strip-mined for coal in Alabama, the owners of many of these lands recognize an economic and a moral obligation to reclaim them. One of the most likely ways of restoring the spoil banks to production is to plant forest trees on them. Narrow banks that are near an abundant source of tree seed will seed in naturally over a period of ten to fifteen years. Larger banks (50 yards or more wide and over 150 yards long) will require more time, and even then may not have enough trees for profitable timber management. Tree planting will reduce the time required to put these lands back into production, and will more nearly insure complete stocking. To determine species suitable for planting on Alabama spoil banks, a study was established in the spring of 1946. It was begun by the Central States Forest Experiment Station of the U. S. Forest Service, and has been carried. on by the Birmingham Branch of the Southern Forest Experiment Station.


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Author(s): Frank Freese

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 17 (1954)