Establishing forests as a post-mining land use has not been widely used in the western United States for a number of reasons. Most mine revegetation efforts in the western United States prior to the 1990's focused on establishing either herbaceous or shrub communities because most existing reclamation expertise was associated with establishing these non-forest plant communities. Hence, few existing performance standards were designed for forested plant communities. Numerous investigations in

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... eastern United States have examined the use of site index to evaluate post-mined land forest productivity. This study reports preliminary results comparing early (less than 20-year) estimates of site index on a high elevation mine site to the performance of artificial reforestation on adjacent forested sites with known site indices in the western United States. Using incremental height analysis, ponderosa pine seedlings planted at two locations on a high elevation mine site were tracked for up to 20 years. Similarly, seedlings planted up to 19 years before the present time were also tracked on nine "undisturbed" forested sites with a range of site indices. No difference in the growth of seedlings through nine years was found between forest sites with high and low site indices. Ponderosa pine seedlings planted on mine overburden took 2 -4 years longer to have appreciable height growth compared with seedlings on forested sites. However, once appreciable shoot growth had begun, seedlings planted on mine overburden demonstrated growth rates comparable to those planted on less disturbed sites (through 19 years).