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Transplanting Aspen on Reclaimed Coal-Mine Lands Using Drip Irrigation <br />January 2006 Report <br />Research Agreement with Seneca Coal Company <br />04-CO-1 1 221 61 6-042 <br />Robert Musselman, Wayne Shepperd, and Lance Asherin <br />USDA Forest Service <br />Rocky Mountain Research Station <br />240 West Prospect Road <br />Fort Collins, Colorado 80526 <br />Introduction: A pilot study was established to examine the feasibility of using <br />supplemental drip irrigation to establish aspen on reclaimed coal mine overburden <br />soils. Overburden soils are normally stored for a number of years before landscape <br />resurfacing and planting. The study described herein examined growth, survival, and <br />water status during the 2005 growing season of aspen trees planted on reclaimed <br />soils during the fall of 2004. The information is useful to determine the level of water <br />stress the plants experienced during establishment, and relate potential tree survival <br />to water stress and growth parameters. Aspen trees planted from potted nursery <br />stock, and trees from natural sprouts on reclaimed soil were also examined. <br />Although aspen is somewhat tolerant of drought conditions (Lieffers et al. 2001), <br />growth and survival of planted aspen stock is expected to increase with irrigation. <br />Irrigation should be beneficial because moisture stress negatively affects aspen <br />response to nutrient uptake (van den Driessche et al. 2003). Water deficit stress also <br />reduces stomata) conductance, root hydraulic conductivity, and shoot leaf water <br />potential in aspen (Siemens and Zwiazek 2003). Irrigation has been shown to <br />increase growth of hybrid poplar, a closely related species (Hansen 1988; Strong <br />and Hansen 1991). Planting aspen in non-irrigated locations elsewhere in Colorado <br />has not been successful (Shepperd and Mata 2005). <br />