1987 SCHNOES AND HUMPHREY: TERRESTRIAL COMMUNITIES IN FLORIDA 109

neering wax myrtle, because the nitrogen fixed in root nodules is rapidly
transported for use in the aboveground portion of the plant. An annual
increment of nitrogen is returned to the soil as leaf litter, but nitrogen
stored in the wood is unavailable to other plants until the pioneer dies.
Aside from having its own supply of a scarce nutrient, wax myrtle inhibits
the success of competing plants through an allelopathic effect, shown
against the exotic Brazilian pepper and likely against other species as
well (Dunevitz and Ewel 1981). Wide and rapid dispersal is assured be-
cause wax myrtle provides an abundant supply of berries to migrant and
resident birds in autumn and winter. Perhaps the most spectacular ex-
ample is the tree swallow, with millions of individuals wintering in Flor-
ida. Tree swallows are regular users of unreclaimed sites with lakes, where
flocks of hundreds or thousands alternate their feeding between wax myrtle
berries and flying insects (over both water and land). Use of actinomy-
cete-nodulated plants in land reclamation has been recommended by
Silvester (1976). Another process possibly enhancing succession is the
introduction of spores of mycorrhizal fungi by colonizing rodents that
include fungi in their diets (Maser et al. 1978).
 The forest community resulting on unreclaimed overburden is aes-
thetically attractive and supports a number of game species. The soil is
likely to be useful for many forms of profitable land use, including agri-
culture and silviculture. The number of uses of this mined land would
be increased by rounding off the spoil piles to produce gently rolling
terrain, and also succession would be speeded by reduced erosion. Sur-
facing the land with topsoil set aside at the beginning of mining probably
would speed the recovery process by supplying nitrogen and seeds, but
providing topsoil appears to be unnecessary if ample time is allotted for
natural recovery on overburden soil. The current regulatory criterion of
80 percent plant cover was exceeded on unreclaimed sites in about 10
years, as compared with the regulatory limit of 5 1/2 years after the ces-
sation of mining. If the piles were rounded to reduce slope erosion,
probably this level of plant cover could be achieved in 6-8 years without
investing in improved pasture.
 Our documentation has shown that the reclaimed pastures are rela-
tively poor wildlife habitat. Nonetheless they are valuable as a prairie-
like monoculture, supporting abundant grass, insects, cotton rats, and
cows. Subsidies involved are leveling of spoil pile tops to form the sur-
face soil, establishing improved pasture, fencing, and animal husbandry,
plus periodic rehabilitative fertilizing and mowing. We have no data to
show whether ranching on this soil is competitive in terms of pasture
maintenance and livestock production on non-mined land, but the over-
burden cap appears to be a justifiable reclamation treatment with a val-
uable post-mining use. Furthermore, the overburden cap, if of sufficient