Originally posted by Zaphod58
It's called Beach Grass. It's used to reclaim the land where the waste coal is dumped. The gob retains heat and burns off the native plants before they can be established. The Beach Grass thrives in those conditions, and allows other plants to grow, and the land where the gob, and the mining was done to recover.

www.erosioncontrol.com...

Clean coal 'bridge' to hydrogen economy

Chris Shaddix, principal investigator for clean coal combustion at the Combustion Research Facility of Sandia National Laboratories' California lab, believes the path to the hydrogen economy leads through the territory familiar to him and the members of his team.

We may some day be able to produce hydrogen by breaking up water molecules in association with the high-temperature heat from nuclear power reactors, or through renewable energy technologies, but right now the most cost-effective way to produce hydrogen is with coal, he says.

The challenge to plant trees in Vichada is massive indeed. The soil is acid, very
acid, with a pH of 4. Then the extreme summer conditions with temperatures in excess
of 40 degrees for months in a row, with a dry soil, and nearly no rainfall for
several months limits the chances for survival of young trees. The choice of trees
is not very wide. After a careful analysis, it was concluded that the Caribbean Pine
(Pino de Caribe) would be an excellent -native- tree to plant and grow in the
savanna of the Llanos in Eastern Colombia. Las Gaviotas started cultivating its own
trees, and soon after the first two years of plantation, it was demonstrated that
this pine species had the right resistance in these tough climatological
circumstances.

By the year 2000, Las Gaviotas will have planted some 11,000 hectares but the
impact of the program is already obvious with half of the job done. The plantation
of 6.500 hectares has lead to some surprising results, successes for which you
cannot plan. The pine trees protect the soil from the harsh sun and the continuous
dropping of needles is resulting in the recreation of a rich humus cap. This has
improved the pH which lifted from 4 to 5 and this in turn has facilitated the
undergrowth and the arrival of many new plants and trees.