Landscape planning with wildlife corridors to increase the habitat value of mined land

The large scale surface mining of coal destroys the premining landscape and structure. In a mixed agricultural landscape, this means the destruction of the network of woody corridors so important to wildlife. The landscape ecology principles related to landscape structures and wildlife corridors are used to both analyze and design new landscape structures based on wildlife corridors. The theory this study tests is that post-mining landscapes can be designed for enhanced wildlife habitat values by the use of the landscape ecology concept of landscape structure, corridor, node, and corridor network.; The landscape ecology concept of nodes connected by nodes is modified so as to be applicable for a mined site that has no established landscape structure based on woody plants. The permanent water bodies are considered to be nodes because they have high wildlife habitat values in the open, post-mining landscape. The location and pattern of the areas to be reclaimed with woody vegetation are identified and analyzed for potential as corridors. The proposed corridors are described by a hierarchy that defines their role in completing the network of wildlife corridors. The location and configuration of the Primary and Secondary corridors are closely related to the linear inclines that are required to haul coal out of the pit. The proposed network of corridors improves the corridor connectivity and circuitry between the nodes. The proposed network is the ecological foundation of a new post-mining landscape and structure designed for wildlife habitat.; The study concludes that the landscape ecology concept of wildlife corridors can be used to analyze, synthesize and plan post-mining landscapes with high wildlife habitat values. The concept and methodology utilizes the engineered, anthropogenic landforms created by the surface mining to create and plan a landscape structure that is supportive of high wildlife habitat values. The mining, engineering, and operations do not need change or modification. Only the reclamation planning process needs modification. The full potential of this approach can only be realized when it is applied in the initial mine and reclamation planning phases.