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attrition in the last few years and that certainly cannot be attributed to mining twenty years <br />ago. More likely it is due to drought. <br />Goal 4- To supplement natural reforestation with tree plantings. (See <br />Goal 2 above.) <br />Achtieuement: As stated throughout this report, the reforestation process in this <br />drainage involves far more than doing a lot of tree planting. In fact, the mitigation program <br />seems to indicate that tree planting may not even be necessary if adequate protection from <br />grazing is provided. It is possible that some forest replacement can occur without protection <br />from grazing, but such replacement will be very slow to develop and will probably not achieve <br />a level that would actually replace the losses due to old age, drought, and disease. It appears <br />that if the stream corridor is fenced to keep the cattle out of that corridor reforestation will <br />occur rather rapidly by entirely natural means. <br />It can also be argued that planting with truly non-native plant materials, even if they <br />are of the same species, pollutes the natural gene pool and may degrade the genetic adaptation <br />of the offspring of the existing trees. Although this aspect is just beginning to be researched, <br />logically the introduction of foreign genes could actually be harmful. <br />The National Park Service has a standing policy that if plant materials collected in the <br />park are cultured outside the park for revegetation, that culturing must be limited to no more <br />than three generations or the plant materials cannot be reintroduced to the park. It has been <br />demonstrated that when a plant is taken from one habitat and is grown in a separate habitat, <br />the genetic composition of that excision changes in as few as three or four generations so it is <br />no longer the same genotype it was in its natural habitat. Planting cottonwood and willow that <br />is derived from another location may introduce genetic material into this system that could <br />reduce the long term survivability of the resulting riparian forest. Unfortunately, not enough <br />is known about the genetics of these species to determine whether that is a real risk. But to be <br />completely safe, reforestation should be left to natural processes rather than taking the risk of <br />contaminating the gene pool by the introduction of genetic material that could reduce the long <br />term adaptability and therefore survivability of the resulting forest. <br />Conclusions <br />A great deal has been learned from this examination of this section of the Coal Creek <br />drainage and the wetland mitigation program that was required as part of the 404 permit. It <br />has been shown that mining of sand in these drainages is not necessarily harmful, provided <br />that mining is done in a way that fits it into the natural limitations of the local environment. <br />Clearly mining very deep into the drainage is very damaging to the entire riparian system and <br />Coal Creek Wetlands and Wetland Mitigation DA Permit 198811488 August 2003 Page 20 of 23 <br />