Five years of work to reclaim the mountainside scar in northwest Colorado Springs is complete. Tens of thousands of native plants are now growing on the re-landscaped slope of the former Pikeview Quarry, not far from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Jerry Schnabel ran the more than century-old mine for decades and is overseeing its reclamation. He says the work required to make the steep slope safe and stable, including moving many truckloads of dirt and rock, is finished. He said the types of new vegetation were determined by the city, state and U.S. Forest Service.
“We planted in three different seasons, three different summers,” he said. “This last year has been entirely all non-irrigated, no artificial watering, and it's looking very healthy.”
The grasses have done well, so well in fact, that it made it difficult to find some of the shrubs and trees that were planted, Schnabel said.
“Some species did better than others,” he said, “based on which plants were more fragile. Some of the more hardy plants have survived better.”
For example, the shrub known as snowberry did well, but the dryland tree known as mountain mahogany did not fare as well, he said, noting that the new oatgrass is thick and 3 feet tall in some spots.
“We didn't want it to look like a manicured slope,” he said. “We didn't want it to look like a toupee up here compared to the background and it's starting to blend in.”
The state inspector visited the site last week and filed a final report on the work.“We had some delays,” Schnabel said. “We should have been done probably a year to two years ago, but we're still going to make our five-year deadline,” with the state.
Schnabel said there will be a state-level review of the reclamation project, expected later this month. Once it is finalized, he said the mining company wants to offer the property to the city as a donation. That could come by the end of the year.
