Landcare Revegetation :: essays research papers

Rehabilitation is the process of reclaiming land for economical orconservation purposes. This process usu wholey involvesre-vegetation. The main aim in reformation is to either return theland to a self-sustaining ecosystem or define the land for humanuse, i.e. crops, pastures and plantations. Rehabilitation should takeplace at a rate that is significantly higher than natural succession.Several principles are enforced for successful reformation. Ofthese principles includes the need for preventing disasters andanticipating problems before they arise, if this is taken toconsideration then reclamation will be less costly and troublefree. When rehabilitating a site, all the components making up theecosystem need to be looked at individually. They include soil,climate, vegetation, condemnation and animals. These components need tointeract at certain rates in set for the desired effect to beachieved and so might need to be altered. There are otherprinciples of rehabilitation, which will be discussed, in greatdetail. There are many methods and strategies involved in rehabilitationwhich, are specific to a site. In this case, surface mine reclamationand plowland will be looked at. A step by step interpreter of theprocesses involved will be covered. When rehabilitating mine land,it is important to first coordinate a plan before mining takes place.Researching and obtaining data on the patterned and faunal elementsof the ecosystem by conducting surveys of the upper, mid andunder-story species present. If the aim is to re descent the land to itsoriginal bionomical balance and to conserve the species present,then further studies should be conducted on the bionomics of thenative species, i.e. seed biology of all species. Propagationtechniques and the order of re-establishing species should bestudied. When rehabilitation work was conducted on the bauxitemines in the southwest of W.A., special look for was conductedon the germination requirements of sown seed. T he aim in this case was to re-establish a self-sustaining forest,which maintains water, timber and all the valued qualities of forest.The timing component was conservatively considered when removingtopsoil in summer to ensure maximum seed store this was achievedwhen the forest was cleared after seed set took place. Handseeding was through soon after ripping in order to ensured that theseeds other propagules were strong established before germination.When conducting mining operations it is generally desirable thatrehabilitation work takes place at the same rate as mining occurs. The soil component in this case needs to be aloof in layers(topsoil and overburden) and stock piled during the miningprocess. The topsoil is very important because is contains some ofthe seed, propagules and micro-organisms which are needed for