An alternative kind of re-vegetation. Feasibility of environmental restoration on a depleted mining site

An alternative kind of re-vegetation. Feasibility of environmental restoration on a depleted mining site - Rossi F.G., Schirone B. & Madonna. Published inIn: Geosciences for the environment, natural hazards and cultural heritage Congresso congiunto SGI-SIMP 2018 - Fabio Massimo Petti, Bernardo Carmina, Rosolino Cirrincione, Carmelo Monaco (Eds.) Società Geologica Italiana, Catania, 12-14 settembre 2018. Abstract Book. Società Geologica Italiana. Roma.https://doi.org/10.3301/ABSGI.2018.02 Abstract Quarries represent important economic activities with an high cost in term of environmental impact. Here we present a study of a quarrying site in Tuscany (Italy). The extracted lithotype, formerly “Arenaria di Manciano” consisting of medium-coarse arenites with intercalations of conglomerates. Some of the quarry-exposures of the Manciano Sandstone allow a detailed analysis of sedimentary structures, icnhofacies, fossils, etc., deserve to be preserved and emphasized. However other less interesting areas of the quarry, from the scientific point of view, need an environmental restoration at the end of the mining activity. Almost every quarry in Italy actually has an exploitation plan coupled with an environmental restoration plan. Especially in Tuscany, exploitation and recovery plan has to be submitted all at once based on the regional laws for the mining sector (L.R. Toscana n°35/2015) and exploitation plans can last 25 years. According to the comprehensive definition of restoration proposed by Stanturf (2014), quarries recovery plans belong to a particular category of restoration named Reclamation: “Reclamation applies to severely degraded land generally devoid of vegetation, often the result of belowground resource extraction, such as mining… On such sites, more intensive management techniques are usually necessary to revegetate the site although natural recolonization can be effective”.In the case of quarries this means that before planting, morphological land modelling of the site is necessary. Nowadays, in Italy quarry recovery designs are often simple works of covering mining sites followed by planting of “resistant” species, sometime using bioengineering techniques. Instead, after a careful preparation of the site, with particular attention to drainage works, it is important to choose with great wisdom the plant species that must initiate a vegetative succession able to develop autonomously. Equally important are the selected planting techniques that can also include the use of shelters, hydroretentors or hydrogels combined with nitrogen, or other methods. Above all, it is important to take care of the reforestation work for at least three or four years after planting. Following this feasibility study, a pivotal recovery project should take effect to evaluate in practice, some new reclamation techniques suggested.&nbsp