Mining company digs deep to reclaim land

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Derrell Ezell (far right), with Texas Westmoreland Coal Company, gives a tour of the mines and forages on the Jewett property. The largest dragline in the state of Texas, that can dig up to 130 feet deep, is pictured behind Ezell. Westmoreland  Coal Co. reclaims the land once the mining is complete, turning the land into usable land once more.     -- Photo by Mindy Poehl

Sept. 22, 2005 -  As the cool fronts begin blowing in and winter is around the corner, it is time to consider planting cool season forages. On Monday, Sept. 12, the Leon County Beef and Forage Committee, along with Texas Westmoreland Coal Mine, hosted a winter forage field day in Centerville and then moved on to visit forage plots at the coal mine in Jewett.

Dr. Larry Redmon, Texas forage specialist, gave an overview of winter forage options. Winter forages are more costly than warm season grasses, but they are higher in protein and digestibility. Cool season forages are primarily used for stocker calves, replacement heifers, dairy cattle and rebreeding first-calf heifers.

Annual grasses that Redmon spoke about were oats, barley, wheat, rye and annual ryegrass.

Oats are the least winter-hardy cool season annual grass with early plantings more susceptible to winter-kill than later plantings. 

"Oats are the most palatable forage and they can can be planted in early fall or late winter," Redmon said. "Remember that forage production can be variable with oats. They don't grow well on sandy soils, but tolerate wet soils better than other small grains."

Barley is a cool season annual that is not used as much as the other grasses. It is tolerant of saline and alkaline soils and does not grow well on sandy soils, but is drought tolerant. 

"Barley is not as winter-hardy as wheat or rye," said Redmon.

Wheat is more drought tolerant and winter-hardy than oats.

"Wheat provides the most flexibility as a crop," Redmon explained. "It can serve as a forage crop and grain crop simultaneously, if it is managed properly." 

Wheat also produces well on a wide range of soils, except sandy soils.  Wheat produces more forage than rye in the spring, but its fall and winter production is usually less. 

Rye is the most winter hardy of the annual winter grasses. 

"Compared to other annual winter grasses, rye produces more fall and winter forage," Redmon said. "Rye is the most tolerant."

Rye is the most productive cool season grass on soils low in fertility, with a sandy texture. 

Ryegrass is adaptable to a wide range of soil types. It can easily be established by broadcasting seed on the soil surface or on grass sod. "Ryegrass matures later than other small grains, which extends the grazing season into the month of June," Redmon said.  "Ryegrass is not as cold or drought tolerant as rye and wheat, though."

After learning about winter forages, participants traveled to Jewett to visit Texas Westmoreland Coal Co.’s Jewett Mine. The mine is a 35,000-acre surface mine complex that reclaims the land once mining is completed. The area contains four draglines and supplies lignite, which is a form of coal. The Jewett Mine produces approximately seven to eight million tons of lignite annually. 

"Coal is America’s most abundant fuel resource for producing electricity," said Derrell Ezell, with Texas Westmoreland Co.. "We are one of the oldest coal companies in the United States. We also have mines in North Dakota and Minnesota."

Westmoreland is dedicated to operating in a manner that is designed to protect the environment. Operating the mine involves proper planning, permitting and monitoring of mining activities to assure compliance with appropriate standards. The reclamation of mined lands is also an important objective of each mining system.

Reclamation consists of filling the holes created during coal removal, replacing sub-soils and top-soils and then re-establishing the vegetative cover. Once reclamation is finished, the area disturbed by mining will look similar to what it did before mining began. 

"We place four feet of suitable material to put behind what is mined," Ezell said. "That is what we then plant on. We grow 1,500 acres of natives and bermudagrass in the spring."

Texas Westmoreland Coal Co. also considers the impacts that mining has on the wildlife habitat. At the mine in Jewett, the mining plan preserves the nesting area on the Interior Least Tern, a bird threatened in the region. 

Once land is reclaimed, it is hard to tell that the site was once an active coal mine. In Jewett, 13,807 acres have been disturbed and 9,979 acres have been reclaimed. 

Reclaiming the land takes plenty of time. The machinery must be moved off of the property before the reclamation can begin, and that includes receiving permits from the Railroad Commission and cutting electricity lines. Plus, the draglines walk at only six feet per minute. But, the reclamation is well worth the time it takes to turn torn up land into a scenic habitat. 

"Reclaimed land benefits people by acquiring reasonably priced coal energy," explained Ezell. "It also turns the land back into useful areas that provide recreation."