UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AT A RECLAIMED SURFACE MINE, THE WILDS, SOUTHEASTERN OHIO: PROBLEMS AND POTENTIAL

The Wilds, a biological preserve, was opened to the public in 1991 and spans nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed, surface-mined land. The land was a gift from American Electric Power. Thousands of acres have been developed and are divided into large sections where African, Asian, and North American species are managed. The Wilds is located approximately 20 miles south-southwest of New Concord, Ohio. The area that comprises The Wilds is contained within an approximately 13,600 acre drainage basin located just to the west of Cumberland, Ohio. This drainage basin is part of the larger Wills Creek drainage basin. This area was mined and reclaimed from north to south from the 1940s/1950s through the mid-1990s. The reclamation periods spanned three changes in federal and state mine-reclamation laws. During reclamation 50 to 60 lakes were constructed at The Wilds. Creating a GIS database for this area has been problematic. Available data for the construction of a GIS database includes the following resources available from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR): DOQs (1994), and vector and raster data from topographic maps (photo revised 1987). A major problem is that the digital topographic data is outdated. Recent topographic data (post reclamation) for this area has been determined from the DOQs but is not in digital form. Historical land use and changes in sub-watersheds can be determined from older aerial photographs and topographic maps. This data must be scanned and georectified which can be problematic given the rapid changes during surface-mining operations. We are currently using GPS (Trimble GeoExplorer3) to ground truth the location of streams, springs, lakes, and roads. The Wilds represents an excellent natural laboratory for environmental geology research given the change in reclamation laws that occurred during the mining and the long history of mining and reclamation in the area. Completed and ongoing undergraduate research projects at The Wilds include surface-water chemistry of the constructed lakes and GIS studies of hydrologic changes in sub-watersheds from mining and reclamation processes. Potential research topics include sedimentation in the constructed lakes, soil development, soil erosion, and mass wasting of the reclaimed areas.