 We're on a piece of disturbed land. Land that may have been disturbed as a result of road building, construction, mining, timbering, or it might have been a landfill like we are here today. The point is is that we want to reclaim this land. Land reclamation is a specialized undertaking. You see an almost universal characteristic of disturbed sites are churned or missing soils. It takes at least hundreds and more likely thousands of years to create soil. Soil, particularly topsoil, has unique chemical, physical, and biological properties. Plants depend upon these properties in order to flourish. And so when soils are disturbed or perhaps missing, the job of rehabilitating the land is very difficult. In fact, if the topsoil is gone, the ability to restore the land to what existed before is probably lost too. Without that topsoil, the best you can hope for is to establish plant populations which are very hardy pioneers. Their job is to hold things together as nature begins the process of restoring those properties which govern the potential of a piece of land. From the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, I'm Eric Peterson.