ABSTRACT
Damaged lands are those where the vegetative cover has been largely or completely destroyed and soil, even the subsoil, has been mixed or removed to leave parent material or other substrata that are poor for plant growth. Rehabilitation and care of damaged resources have resulted from regulations set by law, but these vary locally and nationally. This chapter emphasizes two examples of damaged land reclamation, mine spoil and cut/fill surfaces along rangeland roads. Mine spoil, road fill, and any other damaged land are within a context of climate, topography, the soil materials, and the available plants and animals of the region. A number of principles of site preparation and seeding to reclaim damaged land are: prepare the site, drill the seed, plant at the right season, plant on a firm seedbed, shallow planting for small seed, cover broadcast seed, apply mulches, and use the percentage live seed concept to calculate seeding rates for each species in a mixture.
