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EPA Publications

• Land Revitalization Program Tools for Communities. U.S. EPA. February 2016.
  This fact sheet highlights some of the tools that have resulted from regional community-based projects undertaken with assistance from the Land Revitalization Program. These useful tools can be adapted for use in other communities.
  
  
  

  PDF (1.7 MB)


• Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration: Analysis of Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration at Three Contaminated Sites Remediated and Revitalized with Soil Amendments. EPA 542-R-10-003. Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. U.S. EPA. February 2011.
  This paper provides EPA's analysis of the data to determine carbon sequestration rates at three diverse sites that differ in geography/location, weather, soil properties, type of contamination, and age. The first site, located at high elevation in Leadville, Colorado, suffered from contamination due to mining. The site was amended with biosolid cakes, biosolids pellets, biosolid compost, and limestone starting in 1998. The second site, located in Stafford County, Virginia, had highly reduced, high-sulfur soils resulting from construction activities for an airport at the site. When exposed to air, these soils rapidly acidified, causing acid runoff that contaminated local streams. The site was amended with biosolids in 2002. The third site, Sharon Steel, is located at the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio and was contaminated through the application of by-products associated with manufacturing steel. At Sharon Steel, soil amendments were applied as part of a field demonstration project in 2008.
  
  
  

  PDF (5.1 MB)


• Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration: Field Guide for Sampling and Analysis at Sites Remediated with Soil Amendments. EPA 542-R-10-002. Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. U.S. EPA. June 2010.
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Technology Innovation and Field Services division developed this field guide to provide a consistent sampling approach across sites being analyzed for terrestrial carbon sequestration. EPA wants to partner with other federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, academia, and other interested parties to build our knowledge of terrestrial carbon sequestration rates. This field guide focuses on a methodology to provide data that can be used in mathematical equations and models to determine terrestrial carbon sequestration rates in soil. Equations in this guide focus on use of carbon data, but the approach provides for a range of parameters that can be used for related carbon sequestration analyses.
  
  
  

  Field Guide
  PDF (7.1 MB)

  

  Field Guide Appendices
  PDF (9.3 MB)


• Ecological Revitalization: Turning Contaminated Properties Into Community Assets. EPA 542-R-08-003. Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. U.S. EPA. February 2009.
  This document provides technical information to assist property managers and other stakeholders better understand, coordinate, and conduct ecological revitalization at contaminated properties during cleanup.  Specifically, this document presents general planning and process considerations for ecological revitalization and provides technical considerations for implementing ecological revitalization of wetlands, streams, and terrestrial ecosystems during cleanup. This document also highlights EPA's initiatives and resources that are available, and presents numerous site-specific examples and case studies where ecological revitalization has occurred.
  
  
  

  PDF (4.5 MB)

  

  Fact Sheet PDF (220 K)


• The Use of Soil Amendments for Remediation, Revitalization, and Reuse. U.S. EPA. December 2007. (Download 1.74MB PDF)
  Hundreds of thousands of acres of disturbed and contaminated land scar this country's landscape. This paper provides information on the use of soil amendments, a cost effective in situ process for remediation, revitalization, and reuse of many types of disturbed and contaminated landscapes.


• EPA CLU-IN Ecological Revitalization Fact Sheets:
• A Citizen's Guide to Ecological Revitalization
• Ecological Revitalization Database Fact Sheet
• Ecological Revitalization of Superfund Sites FAQ
• Revegetating Landfills and Waste Containment Areas
• Ecological Revitalization and Attractive Nuisance Issues
• Phytotechnologies for Site Cleanup
• Soil Amendments for Remediation, Revitalization, and Reuse Tools: Fact Sheet (Published 2007)
  (Download 2.26MB PDF)
  This fact sheet describes two tools developed by U.S. EPA in cooperation with 18 federal and local government, academic, and private sector experts. These tools are designed to encourage and assist site cleanup managers to use soil amendments for remediation, revitalization, and reuse of their sites resulted from this collaboration.
  
• U.S. EPA. August 2007. Integrating Water and Waste Programs to Restore Watersheds, A Guide for Federal and State Project Managers. EPA 540K07001, Office of Water and Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
  This manual is intended for Federal and state project managers in water and waste programs who are working on assessment or cleanup projects in watersheds contaminated by hazardous materials or waste.

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Videos

Blackwell Forest Preserve: A Reuse Success Story Video

Download MPEG-4 Video (40.9MB)

Ecological Reuse: The Importance of Ecological Reuse

Download MPEG-4 Video (21.1MB)

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EPA Websites

• EPA Superfund Redevelopment Program web site
  Information on the Superfund Redevelopment Program, including restored sites and their new uses, tools and resources, pilot programs to restore sites, and contact information.
• EPA Brownfields and Land Revitalization web site
  Basic information on EPA actions and policies surrounding brownfield revitalization, including grants and funding information, tools and resources, and laws and regulations.
• Soil Remediation, Revitalization, and Reuse: Technical Performance Measures
  The purpose of this website is to provide a tool to assist site project managers in the selection of appropriate technical performance measures (TPMs) for evaluating the remedial success of soil amendments used for remediation, revitalization, and reuse of contaminated sites.
• U.S. EPA. 2006. Revegetating Landfills and Waste Containment Areas Fact Sheet. EPA 542-F-06-001
  This fact sheet provides information on revegetation of landfill surfaces for EPA site managers, consultants, and others interested in the revegetation of landfill surfaces.
• U.S. EPA. ORD EnviroAtlas web site
  A collection of interactive tools and resources that allows users to explore the many benefits of ecosystem services.

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Additional Government Websites

• ITRC (Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council). 2004. Making the Case for Ecological Enhancments. ECO-1. Washington, D.C.: Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council and the Wildlife Habitat Council.
  White paper and case studies identify benefits, incentives, and limitations for implementing ecological enhancements at environmentally impacted sites.
• Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council (ITRC). 2006. Planning and Promoting Ecological Reuse of Remediated Sites. ECO-2. Washington, D.C.: Ecological Land Reuse Team, Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council
  Promotes ecological land reuse as an integrated part of site remediation strategies and as an alternative to conventional property development or redevelopment. Describes key decision points in a flow diagram format and defines the practicality of applying natural or green technologies to traditional remediation processes.
• Dumroese, R. Kasten; Luna, Tara; Landis, Thomas D., (Eds.). 2009. Nursery Manual for Native Plants: A Guide for Tribal Nurseries. Agriculture Handbook 730, Volume 1: Nursery Management. Washington, DC: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
  Available Free of Charge from the U.S. Forest Service.
  This 17-chapter manual provides basic, easy-to-understand information for operating a native plant nursery. Intended for use by Native Americans, the manual is well illustrated with photos and line drawings, includes many real-world examples, and would be useful to anyone that is considering starting a native plant nursery, or refining their current operation.
• University of Texas, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Native Plant Information Network
  An online database of more than 7,200 native plant species.
• Forest Service Nurseries:
  The following nurseries are operated by the U.S. Forest Service. They provide seeds, bare root, seedlings, and other vegetation used in ecological restoration projects:
• Coeur d'Alene Nursery — Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
• Charles E. Bessey Nursery — Halsey, Nebraska
• J.W. Toumey Nursery — Watersmeet, Michigan
• Hoosier National Forest Native Seed Nursery — Bedford, Indiana

• National Park Service Units:
• Plant Conservation Alliance
  A coalition of government agencies and other scientific and conservation groups that is working to solve problems surrounding native plant extinction and habitat restoration.
• Federal Native Plant Conservation Committee
  A listing and contact information for government agencies, conservation organizations, and academic institutions that make up the Federal Native Plant Conservation Committee.
• Estimating the Economic Impacts of Ecosystem Restoration — Methods and Case Studies
  This report provides a detailed description of the methods used to estimate economic impacts of case study projects and also provides suggestions, lessons learned, and trade-offs between potential analysis methods.

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Additional Non-Government Websites

• Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife With Native Plants
  Information and resources about using native plants in your home garden.
• Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) Online Directory
  The online CPC Plant Conservation Directory contains useful contacts in each state for information on rare and endangered plants, permit procedures, and government programs; botanists and other contacts in state Heritage Programs and Native Plant Societies; and a searchable database of organizations and experts active in the conservation of rare plants and their areas of expertise.
• Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico
  A National Academies of Sciences report that identifies best practices for monitoring and evaluating restoration activities to improve the performance of restoration programs and increase the effectiveness and longevity of restoration projects. This report provides general guidance for restoration monitoring, assessment, and synthesis that can be applied to most ecological restoration projects. It also offers specific guidance for a subset of habitats and taxa to be restored in the Gulf including oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and seagrass habitats, as well as a variety of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals.
• National Invasive Species Council
  Website for the National Invasive Species Council, an inter-departmental council that helps coordinate all federal government activities related to invasive species (currently under construction).
• National Invasive Species Information Center
  A gateway for information and resources on invasive species.
• National Park Service Plant Conservation Alliance – Weeds Gone Wild
  Provides information for the general public, land managers, researchers, and others on the serious threat and impacts of invasive alien plants to the native flora, fauna, and natural ecosystems of the United States.
• North American Native Plant Society
  Non-profit association dedicated to the conservation of native plants in North America. The site features information on where to find native plants and seeds, publications, and links to related organizations.
• Seeds of Success
  An interagency program coordinated though the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that supports and coordinates wildland seeds for research, development, conservation, and ecosystem restoration. The long-term conservation outcome of the program is to support BLM's Native Plant Materials Development Program, whose mission is to increase the quality and quantity of native plant materials available for restoring and supporting resilient ecosystems.
• Soil and Landscape Rehabilitation: Reclamation — Remediation — Restoration — Revegetation — Revitalization (Publications). This page contains a list of and provides access to publications by a research team comprised of research scientists, graduate students, staff and faculty working in the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. The research and associated publications focus on coal mined land reclamation and associated water quality issues, wetland creation & restoration, acid sulfate soil remediation, roadside revegetation, dredge spoil utilization, manufactured soil production, by-product screening, and an array of related research based in environmental soil science.
• The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Global Invasive Species Team
  TNC program dedicated to mitigating the damage caused by non-native species. Web page includes many resources, including invasive species guides, photographs, and news items.
• Weed Science Society of America (WSSA): Journal on Invasive Plant Science and Management
  A new peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the WSSA. The journal focuses on the biology and ecology of invasive plants, invasive plant management and restoration, ecological and environmental impacts, risk and/or cost benefit analyses, case studies, and updates on new invasive plants and policy, compliance, and regulatory legislation. It is available both on-line and in print. A subscription is required to view full-text articles online.

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Glossary of Ecological Land Reuse Terms

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