Reclaiming the land

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State's mines release first reclaimed cropland

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North American Coal Co.'s Falkirk Mine is the only one of North Dakota's four large mines yet to release crop or hayland from final bond.

Statewide, 2,145 crop acres, 771 hayland acres and 2,512 native and tame grassland acres have been fully reclaimed to standards first set by the state in the 1970s.

Freedom Mine, also owned by North American Coal, released 398 acres of cropland about a year ago. The Beulah Mine, owned by Dakota Westmoreland, has released 266 crop acres, while the Center Mine, owned by BNI Coal, has released 51 hayland acres.

Industrial purposes are the primary use of released land statewide. Most industrial uses for the state's reclaimed land are ash pits for the power plants or municipal landfills, according to the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

David Straley, manager of government and public affairs for North American Coal in Bismarck, said Falkirk Mine has cropland that can be released based on reclamation success, but other issues have been the holdup. When Falkirk Mine started, its operational method was to mine outward from a center. That means the first land to be reclaimed is at the center of a mining operation.

Straley said the mine wants to avoid mixing farm equipment with large haul trucks as much as possible for safety reasons. Also, some of the reclaimed acreages are too small to be attractive to farmers so Falkirk is waiting to make larger tracts available.

Freedom Mine, because of its size and mine layout, doesn't face the same constraints in making reclaimed land available for final bond release, Straley said. Falkirk Mine, started in 1978, mines 7 million tons of coal a year. Freedom Mine, started in 1983, mines 16 million tons a year.

Dakota Westmoreland released 137.6 crop acres in 1998 and 128.4 crop acres in 2003 after reclaiming land mined between the early 1970s and mid-1980s. The reclamation processes on those acres varied tremendously with changes that have occurred over the years, said Bob Montgomery, director of regulatory affairs for the company.

Present reclamation practices involve soil analysis to determine proper root depths for subsoil and topsoil rather than simply replacing depths that previously existed, Montgomery said. It also was discovered that cover crops of oats or grasses aren't necessary for weed control in those first years. Currently, the Beulah Mine is leasing land back to farmers two years after topsoil is restored, and letting producers determine the best management for that land, he said.

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UNDERWOOD Steven Heger examines the red and green hues of the satellite imagery on his computer screen. The shadings of the different annual mappings reveal the highs, lows and changes in productivity over time on the rented, reclaimed acres that he farms near Underwood.

"This shows improvement," he said. "By no means is it perfect, but I can now honestly say that this land is actually starting to get better. Is it where it should be? It's getting close."

The day may be nearing when Falkirk Mine returns its first reclaimed cropland to producer ownership. Falkirk Mine expects to seek its first final bond release of cropping ground in 2010. The mine should be releasing a significant amount of acreage over the next 10 years, said Jeremy Eckroth, environmental specialist at Falkirk Mine.

"We are kind of excited about that," Heger said. "That's something we have been looking for. We are eager for it."

Westley Weible, McLean County Farmers Union president, from Turtle Lake, said farmers in general are anxious to get some land back as they see mining operations spread over more and more crop acres.

"Farms are getting bought up. For some of them, they used to just replace it, but it's harder now. You don't see land for sale," he said. "A number of them were at the age where they were ready to quit anyway. There's a few where that wasn't the case."

Falkirk Mine's practice has been to offer other land to farmers who agree to sell property to make way for the mining. That's how the Hegers acquired reclaimed land on which to relocate their farmstead and to seed some of their crop.

Steven Heger is the third generation on the family's Underwood farm. He began farming in partnership with his father, Laurance, in 1999. The relocation of the farmstead in 2003 from just west of Coal Creek Generating Station to the west side of Underwood enabled the operation to modernize, although the move wasn't without some investment and sense of loss.

"That's the whole process you have to go through letting go of the old and moving on to the new," Laurance Heger said. "That was a real personal thing for me. You have to let go of everything. It's been the right thing to do, and it's been good, but it as been a lot of work."

The Hegers preserved the heritage of the original farm by relocating a small building that serves as a garden shed and using wood from the old barn and granary to give a unique, nostalgic look to their new business office. The old wood has engravings that date back to the early 1900s.

"Virtually everybody in the family has their names scratched in here somewhere," Steven Heger said. "I think it's a great piece of history myself."

The Hegers together have about 500 reclaimed crop acres under lease. They have seen the productivity of the land gradually increase.

"What we were seeing was a 10 percent yield decrease from ground that's not reclaimed. What we have seen in the recent years is that gap narrowing," Steven Heger said, noting that this year's yields are within 5 percent of non-mined land. "Our main concern something that we still see is there's a hardpan in the soil."

Falkirk reclamation officials recognize that soil compaction is a problem, creating a hard barrier in the depths of the soil that crop roots can't penetrate. In a dry year, that hardpan can reduce yields.

Eckroth said Falkirk three years ago went to using a truck and shovel rather than a scraper to spread soil to reduce the compaction. Before mining, Falkirk removes 12 to 14 inches of topsoil and 12 to 36 inches of subsoil and stockpiles them to be respread after mining.

In sharing reclamation information with other mine operators, Falkirk also learned of the invention of a machine in Illinois for breaking down hardpan. It added the machine to its fleet.

Rocks have been another concern.

"When you disturb the ground the way they did, basically every rock is going to be on the surface and the amount of rock picking is quite substantial," Heger said. "I don't know if it is worse than before. All I know is it is worse than anything we have had around it."

The mine acknowledges the problem and has compensated farmers for time and labor in removing rocks.

On the positive side, respreading the soil provides a chance to eliminate erosion features, aerate the soil and spread topsoil more evenly.

"We have come a long way in five years with reclamation ground and practices have changed," Heger said. "We are definitely going in the right direction. By no means is it perfect, but it least we are getting better."

He sees the more recently reclaimed land regaining productivity faster as more is learned about better methods for achieving desired results. The land reclaimed 20 years ago is more rolling and uneven than the land being reclaimed now. Also, reclaimed land that used to be grassed for several years before cropping now goes back to farmers more quickly.

In some cases, Eckroth said, the mine is planting grass and alfalfa for three to five years and letting ranchers hay the land before going to cash crop. In other cases, farmers are coming in right behind the soil spreaders.

Heger said farmers help "fine tune" the reclamation, and he believes producers should become even more involved in the process.

Heger, who is vice president of the McLean County Farm Bureau, said the local group leaves policy decisions on reclamation to the national organization, but there are thoughts on reclamation that local farmers like. For instance, contouring the land for drainage and strategically placing required wetlands during reclamation could make farming more efficient, he said.

Heger also would like to see regulations changed to enable a greater variety of crops to be raised on land being reclaimed. Currently, only sunflowers, flax and small grains other than winter wheat are allowed.

Of the 12,384 total acres fully reclaimed in North Dakota, Falkirk has released 459 acres. Most of Falkirk's acres went into wildlife and recreation, including creation of the Underwood golf course.

In 2008, Falkirk Mine obtained final bond release on about 160 acres of waterfowl production area now owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The former cropland has become wetlands and grazing land leased to area ranchers. The acreage replaces about 500 acres of wetland easements bought by the mine.

Doug Stoltz, land agent for Falkirk Mine, said the establishment of new cropland in the area will replace the loss of cropland for the waterfowl. The mine's reclamation plan seeks to replace acreage in proportion to original uses.

Falkirk Mine currently has a request before the North Dakota Public Service Commission to release about 700 acres around Coal Lake for recreation. The property would go to the North Dakota Department of Transportation and be managed by the state Game and Fish Department. Falkirk plans to put in parking and a boat dock.

"It's a wonderful place for wildlife and people," said Randy Kreil, wildlife chief with the Game and Fish. "It's going to be a great addition to the recreation."

The primary recreational uses will be hiking, bird watching and hunting, he said. No motorized vehicles will be allowed.

Although mainly native woodland and grassland, the land includes 86 acres of original cropland that will remain in agricultural production through haying and cropping. The Game and Fish Department is considering a crop-share arrangement with a neighboring landowner.

Dakota Resource Council, an environmental and landowners' group based in Dickinson, has asked the PSC not to release the 86 agricultural acres under the recreational use.

Gene Wirtz, an Underwood farmer and DRC member, said the objection reflects the concern over the lack of agricultural land being released from final bond.

"It's affecting farmers. There's no land here available for a young farmer to take over," he said. "This community has been waiting for 35 years for some agricultural land to be sold back. That was the promise given to the community leaders, and it's just not happening."

Mine officials note that about two-thirds of the 34,828 acres under permit are being farmed, hayed or grazed under rental agreements. North Dakota's corporate farming law prevents the mine from profiting from farming so rents are set to cover no more than land taxes.

Statistics show the mine has 4,850 acres of reclaimed land being cropped and 4,300 acres of reclaimed land being hayed, along with 600 acres of reclaimed pasture belonging to the state. The mine currently is working with 56 farmers who are farming, haying or pasturing reclaimed land. Twenty farmers are cropping.

More than half of the land being leased to farmers is property acquired for future mining, said David Straley, manager of government and public affairs for North American Coal's North Dakota operations, Bismarck. The mine buys land five years ahead of the mining operation.

At any given time, only about 1,000 acres are in some stage of active mining activity, Straley said. Actual land out of production is closer to 5,000 acres, though, because of the presence of more permanent features connected with mining.

Cropland is slow to leave mine ownership because state law requires reclaimed land to be monitored for 10 years before a mine can request release of responsibility. To be considered for full bond release, the land must meet the state's standards for productivity, which consider soil type, climatic conditions in a given year and comparisons with a county average or similar field.

Heger doesn't see farming diminishing in his area because of mining. The amount of rented land has increased, but that's a trend statewide, he said. Federal agricultural statistics show McLean County lost farms no more rapidly, and probably a bit less rapidly, than the rest of the state in the past 25 years.

Although the mine continues to buy land, Straley noted there will be a day when the last acre is purchased and the size of the mine begins a gradual decline. That day won't come soon. The mine has a contract with the nearby Coal Creek Generating Station to deliver coal through 2045, and activities could go on past that date.

But ag producers will see a lot of land coming back during that time, Straley said.

"We will get this land off our books," he said. "There will be a time when we will return 100 percent of this land."

Member Comments

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LeftyLucy

09-20-09 1:27 PM »Report Abuse

Sorry, reclamation is not complete until the groundwater destroyed in the course of strip mining (Federal law under SMCRA) is replaced. No water...no complete reclamation. That is the reason while reclaimed "agricultural" land is not being release as ag land...instead it is turned into recreation areas or hunting land or something other than land to be used for farming...destroyed groundwater aquifers cannot be replaced in a decade...it takes centuries. the end.

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