Unfortunately, we have only a small portion of the spoil area in Indiana that is suitable for the development of improved pasture. Not over 10 percent of the area mined to date is good enough and that percentage will decrease. Modern operations are deeper than the early ones and are exposing more hard rock and shale. Fortunately, most of these areas can be reforested after three or four years. In exceptional cases less than 5 percent of the area mined the exposed materials contain large amounts of sulfides. These break down into acid that in some cases require ten to twelve years to leach out before revegetation can be undertaken. The fact that these stands of trees established on raw spoil will produce merchantable timber has been proven. In 1951, an area was clear cut at the Enos mine in Pike county. The pines on this tract were planted in 1933-34. The products from that cutting, peeled posts and poles, were sold to the Indiana Wood Preserving Company at the rate of $335.59 per acre. An increase in value of $16.48 per acre per year. Pasture, forests and fishing are not the only products. Game of all varieties is abundant in the worked out areas. One of the largest herds of white tailed deer in the state, now referred to as the strip mine herd, is located in northern Warrick and southern Pike counties. In the Indiana deer season of 1951, the first open season since 1893, the second largest recorded kill came from the strip mine herd. The Pitman-Robertson report of the Division of Fish and Game carries the following comment on deer from that area. "The superiority of the diversified range of the strip mine herd was reflected in above average weights and measurements in most age classes." From the evidence at hand, there is every reason to believe that most of the mined area will again be highly productive forest land. It has completed the entire cycle of land use. Originally it supported magnificent stands of hardwood timber. This timber was cut and the lands devoted to farming. Poor management and erosion soon depleted the supply of top soil and many areas were abandoned to broom sedge, blackberries and gullies. Because it was close enough to the surface the coal has been removed and the areas replanted to many of the same species of trees. With this reestablishment of the forest cover and the creation of the lakes in the final cuts, we can again have our forest resource combined with fishing, hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation, some areas of pasture and, I believe, others that can be profitably devoted to the production of nut crops and the by-product of quality logs for the veneer and lumber industry.