I did a few bio-inventory surveys for a land trust back home. One was an old sand pit that was slowly growing back to a somewhat natural state. I spent hours just looking around the place seeing what was living or growing there.
A few spots were completely barren but the majority of it was recovering even with minimal intervention. Amazing stuff. Wish I could see it now.
throw some fungi into the mix to really see miracles – Paul Stamets on mycoremediation
Some spots will never (or extremely slowly) revgetate without first establishing geotechnical stability. These would be areas such as pit walls, or other areas where the sand is at an angle of repose. They have a really hard time in areas such as beaches (not a mining example but still valid) where the sands shift too much for plants to establish and the nutrients aren’t there.
I remember submitting a ‘soil sample’ to the coop for nutrient analysis even though I knew it was pretty much just straight sand. Absolutely nothing growing in it even though they had tried growing trees in it. They took my word for it but just wanted it on file for the plot’s portfolio.
The coop sent the results back with an analysis that basically said ‘its sand and has pretty much no nutrients’.
