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Company and OSM -NTTT. The US Forest Service contributed cost share funding for the <br />project 2005 -2007. <br />PRELIMINARY STUDIES: <br />A pilot study was funded by Seneca Coal Company in 2004 to examine the feasibility of <br />using supplemental drip irrigation to establish aspen on reclaimed coal mine overburden <br />soils. Overburden and top soils are normally stored for a number of months before <br />landscape resurfacing and planting. The study, established on reclaimed lands owned by <br />Seneca near Hayden, Colorado (Figure 1), examined for the 2005 and 2006 growing <br />seasons the growth, survival, and water status of aspen trees planted on reclaimed soils <br />during the fall of 2004. <br />The objective of this study initially was to examine the survival, growth, and water status <br />of irrigated aspen transplants on two types of topsoil, placed over coal mine overburden <br />material that had been replaced after surface mining. However, circumstances allowed us <br />to expand the original study design to collect growth and survival data from: <br />1) Aspen sprouts transplanted from a nearby mine, placed in two topsoil types within a <br />fenced area and drip irrigated at three watering levels with an un- watered control; <br />2) Un- watered sprouts arising from aspen root segments that had been transported into <br />the fenced area in the two top soil types; <br />3) Commercially grown potted aspen seedlings that were planted in a nearby fenced area, <br />and; <br />4) Natural aspen sprouts growing in an un -mined area in the vicinity that was not fenced <br />and subject to grazing effects of ungulates on growth and survival of aspen sprouts. <br />Design and Methods -The initial project was a case study of the effectiveness of irrigation <br />treatment on the survival, growth, and water status of aspen cuttings planted on a site of <br />reclaimed land of the Seneca Coal Company II -W mine south of Hayden, Colorado. The <br />irrigated portion of the study was designed to measure the effect of supplemental <br />irrigation on aspen saplings that had been transplanted from a naturally regenerating un- <br />mined site on the nearby ( <3 km) Yoast mine where the original forest was being cleared <br />in preparation for mining. Aspen saplings between 1 -2 m in height were selected from <br />this site at the end of the growing season in 2004 and pruned to leave only the uppermost <br />branches intact. <br />In October, 2004, these saplings were dug using a small backhoe and immediately <br />transplanted into augered holes that had been prepared at the fenced planting site at the <br />II -W mine. All cuttings were presumed to be from the same genetic clone since they were <br />collected from the same area. Trees were planted in eight blocks consisting of five rows <br />of ten trees, (50 trees total) spaced on a 1.5 m x 1.5 m grid (Figure 2). Four blocks were <br />