75 Years of Mined-Land Reclamation Reported In SSSAP/J.

A major definition of Land Reclamation includes reducing the erosion and sustaining vegetation on lands disturbed by surface mining and/or mineral processing tailings deposits.  The past 75 years' Soil Science Society of America Proceedings and Journals were searched for reports by soil scientists' documenting the properties of land and soils physically and  chemically disturbed by man's industrial activities

            The earliest report in SSSAP in 1946, by Tyner and coworkers , examined mined land soils in West Virginia.  They published a followup paper in the 1948 Journal of the American Society of Agronomy.

            SSSAP/J articles from the 1950's through the 1970's were few.  Perhaps not surprisingly, JEQ became a dominant outlet.  NEPA and SMCRA in the 1970's supported and provoked more intensive studies and reports on minesoils and related disturbed land areas.  Reports of mined-land reclamation studies came in from nearly all mining regions of the U.S., and outside.  Methods of characterizing and studying  new soils on mined-lands appeared in the 1970's and 1980's. The CERCLA in 1980 introduced chemically contaminated soils and land areas to the soil science community, along with  phytoremediation and other new words by soil scientists investigating hazardous element and organic compound removal from a soil mass.   SSSA has published 2 books on land reclamation.    

            Into the 21st Century and beyond,  substantial land and soil areas, both large and small tracts, will continue to be excavated, mixed, contaminated, amended, and either left for posterity, applied to some new and different use, or returned to a prior economic goal such as crop or tree production.  Soil scientists remain the primary professionals who have the education and experience in pedology, mineralogy, chemistry, biology, and landscape properties to provide optimum site and soil data and interpretations for any planned economic or societal uses of these soils.