At the site of a former coal mine in Jefferson County, Ohio, the Friendship Highwall Reclamation Project eliminated more than 9,000 linear ft of dangerous exposed cliffs and transformed the area into parkland, native wetlands, forest and prairie, with a a funding award from a U.S. Dept. of the Interior program several years ago.
Now a new round of grant funding from the agency's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, totaling $124.8 million, aims to support more projects to reclaim abandoned U.S. mine land.