Aug. 16--A group promoting reforestation in Appalachia is seeking more than $422 million to plant trees on mountains that were cleared or leveled for surface mining, a program that could have far-reaching impact on the economy and environment of the region.

Leaders of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative are seeking federal stimulus money to plant 125 million trees in Central Appalachia, including Eastern Kentucky.

The goal is to put back trees on hundreds of thousands of acres where they once stood, but which coal companies reclaimed as grassland after surface mining over the last three decades.

The plan could boost the economy in one of the nation's most chronically poor areas, ultimately providing an estimated 2,000 jobs for forestry technicians, tree-planters, bulldozer operators and others, backers estimate.

But supporters say the project also would provide benefits for decades to come.

Converting large blocks of Appalachian forest to grassland while reclaiming mountaintop mines has eliminated habitat for some species. Reforesting large areas would re-create the natural habitat as nearly as possible, according to scientists involved in the initiative.

It could also improve water quality in streams, reduce the potential for flooding, soak up carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and lay the foundation for an expanded wood-products economy, supporters say.

They hope the Obama administration will see the proposal as a chance to accomplish two goals at once with federal stimulus money: putting people to work and improving the environment.

"It's shovel-ready," said Patrick N. Angel, a soil scientist and forester with the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. "We would start hiring people right now if we had money."

The proposal is from the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative. ARRI brings together scientists, regulators from the federal government and seven states, coal companies and environmental groups.

Scientists with the group have given a copy of the proposal to President Obama's green-jobs czar and have a meeting scheduled soon with the White House.

ARRI has been working for several years to promote wider use of trees, planted according to a scientifically tested method, to reclaim mined areas.

The effort is bearing fruit. The amount of land returned to forest after mining, or where coal companies plan to plant trees, has grown in recent years in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia.

The new goal of the initiative, however, is to change the face of the region by reforesting areas mined in the past.

Though the initial plan seeks federal money to reforest 175,000 acres in five years, there could be 750,000 to a million acres available for reforestation in Central Appalachia, according to ARRI's proposal to the White House.

The group is seeking $15 million in federal money the first year, growing to a total of more than $422 million over five years for work in eight states.

In E. Ky., 500,000 acres mined

The scope of surface mining helps explain the significance of the proposal.

Since the late 1970s, coal companies have mined and reclaimed more than 1.5 million acres in seven Appalachian coal states, including more than 500,000 acres in Eastern Kentucky, according to estimates from a Virginia Tech researcher and the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources.

Coal companies typically have trees clear-cut before blasting away the tops and sides of mountains to uncover seams of coal.

In some cases, such mining has created level land for development in a place where building sites are in short supply.

Coal companies reclaimed much of the land, however, by planting it with grasses to create what they said would be hay or pasture land.

Hay-pasture land has been the second most-used type of reclamation in Eastern Kentucky over the last 30 years, behind a category called fish and wildlife habitat. Those sites also include grassy areas, along with trees and shrubs that create food for some types of wildlife.

In permits issued since late 1999, coal companies listed intended reclamation uses on 496,014 acres that might be disturbed during mining. Of that, the companies said they would reclaim 80 percent as fish and wildlife habitat or hay-pasture land, according to information from the state Division of Mine Permits.

Not all that land has been mined or reclaimed yet.

Agricultural use of reclaimed mine land is growing, but much of what was reclaimed as pasture the last three decades is now unmanaged and slowly reverting to scrub, scientists say.

The land ended up fallow for various reasons. It is in spots where it isn't practical to tend cattle or cut hay, for instance, or lacks adequate water. In some cases, it is owned by coal or land companies that aren't interested in leasing it for grazing.

"A lot of people call it wasteland," said James A. Burger, a Virginia Tech professor and leading researcher on how to reforest mined lands.

The reforestation proposal envisions putting trees not only on land originally reclaimed as hay-pasture land, but also sites reclaimed as fish and wildlife habitat, Angel said.

Forests become meadows

Scientists have increasingly argued in recent years that creating grassland isn't the best way to reclaim land mined in Appalachia, in large part because of the ecological impact of turning forested areas into meadows.