Can Fast-Growing Plantations Facilitate Forest Tree Recruitment While Limiting Soil Erosion in Mine Waste Rock Slopes?

Thus fast-growing poplars may be used to quickly stabilize the soil against erosion while
facilitating forest recolonization. However, the plantation design that should be used to
achieve both objectives remains unknown. To overcome this knowledge gap, a hybrid
poplar plantation was established in 2013 on waste rock slopes of the Canadian Malartic
gold mine in Quebec. The influence of plantation design in terms of tree spacing and
combination with hydroseeding of herbaceous species was evaluated on: 1) soil erosion,
vegetation and litter cover, and root development in superficial soil, and 2)
microenvironmental conditions controlling seed germination, seedling development and
survival of forest trees.