A management plan for the rehabilitation of surface mined coal lands in the east Kootenay, British Columbia

The concept of this thesis was developed during the author's two years of work with the British Columbia Ministry of Mines and Petroleum Resources as a Reclamation Inspector. During that period (1973-75) one of the author's major duties was to review reclamation plans prepared by mining companies, pursuant to Section 8 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act3 as applications for either surface mining permits or permit extensions. The quality of these reports varied greatly, with few being really comprehensive. No uniform standard of reclamation report was achieved by industry or, perhaps even more important, demanded by the Ministry. Reclamation programmes on many mining operations were suffering from an obvious lack of management planning. Work was being undertaken without clear objectives, and no apparent attempt was being made to develop an ongoing planning process. The author contends that the following characteristics are implicit in the term "management planning": 1. A stated management period; 2. An initial collection of facts and a description of the area to be managed; 3. An analysis of the facts and an assessment of management options; 4. The designation of management objectives; 5. The design of a programme to accomplish the objectives; and 6. A record of results and a collection of further information by inventory and research to be used in formulating the plan for the next management period. He further explains that, by intent, Section 8 of the Coal Mine's Regulation Act would appear at present to require most of these elements of a management process in the preparation of a reclamation report. The object of this thesis is to develop and illustrate a management plan format that reflects the continuous planning process outlined above. As a basis for the plan the experience and information gained by the author at Kaiser Resources Ltd.'s mining operation in Sparwood during the period 1971-1973 are summarized and interpreted, and management prescriptions formed from that synthesis. The thesis is written as though it were a management plan prepared in early 19 75 for the management period 1975- 1978. In summary, the format of the plan is essentially as follows: 1. An initial collection of facts and description of the area to be managed. This portion of the plan consists of two chapters; a description of the biophysical characteristics of the mining area, and a description of the mining environment to be reclaimed. The biophysical description includes topography, drainage, bedrock and surficial geology, soils, climate, vegetation and fauna. The description of the mining environment deals with the history of coal mining in the East Kootenay, the tenure of the mining area, and the location, extent and nature of mining, milling and exploration operations. 2. An assessment of Management Options. Two items are considered to be important in assessing reclamation management options; the environmental impact of the mining operation, and the legal responsibilities of the mining company for reclamation. Basically, reclamation is undertaken in order to mitigate some of the adverse effects of mining on the natural environment. For this reason, a discussion of the major impacts of mining, concentrating on those that can be mitigated by reclamation, is a prerequisite to the formulation of management objectives. This chapter of the plan contains a description of land capability for forestry, agriculture, wildlife and recreation, and a discussion of the impact of mining on land capability, water quality and the fishery resource. The second chapter of this portion of the plan deals with the legislative and administrative framework for reclamation in British Columbia. The Coal Mines Regulation Act currently states that reclamation must be carried out to a level satisfactory to the Minister, without defining what that level is. This chapter discusses present interpretations of the Act, the administrative procedures for reclamation enforcement, and speculates on the form that eventual reclamation standards might take. 3. The designation of management objectives. Management objectives are defined on the basis of the environmental impacts of the mining operation and on the legal requirements for reclamation. For the Kaiser Resources Ltd. operation the overall reclamation management objectives are defined as: i. To re-establish watershed values, by either mechanical means or the establishment of a self-sustaining vegetation cover, as soon as possible after the cessation of mining activities on any particular parcel of land. ii. To accomplish watershed rehabilitation in a manner that is compatible with the potential prime surface use of the land and consistent with post-mining site conditions. On the basis of the description of both the mining environment and land capability, two land use objectives are proposed: a. To provide food and, ultimately, cover for mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk and moose through the establishment of appropriate plant communities. b. To re-establish aesthetic values on all disturbed lands and, where possible, to - enhance opportunities for outdoor recreation. 4. The design of a programme to accomplish the objectives. This section of the plan consists of a discussion of the major constraints to successful reclamation and a description of the various components of the reclamation programme. The most significant constraints to reclamation on the Kaiser Resources Ltd. operation are considered to be, in decreasing order of importance: surface instability, soil temperature, soil compaction, soil chemistry, and increasing elevation. Seven components of the reclamation programme are described - species selection, seed collection, plant propagation, site preparation, seeding, planting, and tending. In each case, past experience, including cost information, is summarized, and major prescriptions proposed for the coming management period. 5. Assessment of Results. The assessment programme relates to the management objectives, and focuses primarily on watershed and wildlife habitat parameters. Parameters to be measured relate to water quality, protective cover, species composition, the degree of ungulate use, forage quantity and forage quality. The management plan thus prepared provides the framework for the two final steps in the management process for any particular management period; the subdivision of the area for management purposes, and the preparation of operational plans. The management area is divided, primarily for record keeping, into compartments, which are permanent unit's based on topography, access or mining operations, and sub-compartments, which are temporary subdivisions of compartments based on treatment. Each compartment should be subject to a specific land-use objective. Sub-compartments may be combined or further subdivided in the light of future operations. The last step in the process is the preparation of annual operational plans. These outline, for each year of the management period, the specific operations to be undertaken and the projected costs of each. Operational plans become the basis for the development of annual budgets.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat