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! • ~ '~ <br />series of successional stages that tend toward those native communities <br />found at the site before major disturbance. The ultimate goal of such <br />reclamation would be the restoration to a state under which vegetative <br />cover and nutrient cycles are as closed as before man-caused disturbance. <br />Each predictable successional stage should result in increases in the <br />degree of biochemical closure of nutrient loops. <br />Current reclamation practices in the high northern plains are not those <br />that necessarily lead to self-sustaining progressive vegetational success- <br />ion. In terms of availability of information upon which to judge success, <br />current efforts should all be considered experimental. New mining plans <br />should include more soundly based biogeochemical data so that resulting <br />analyses can lead to reclamation plans that provide definable risk of <br />success or failure. Fundamental research on the history of soil-forming <br />climates, range ecology, phytosociology, and biogeography of native plant <br />communities should be conducted so that individual site information may <br />be properly evaluated. <br />