Brenda K. Schladweiler with BKS Environmental Associates, Inc. will be attending the 2017 Second International Symposium on Land Reclamation and Ecological Restoration in Xian, China, October 20-23, 2017, which is hosted by the China Coal Society and China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing). She will be presenting “40 years of SMCRA: what have we learned in the State of Wyoming.” SMCRA is the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, which governs all aspects of coal mining in the State of Wyoming. Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Land Quality Division, has primacy to implement this law in Wyoming. The post-conference tour will include various mining areas and reclamation in China; that tour will last about 5 days. Brenda says, “Wyoming coal mines have done a great job of reclamation and have learned much since the passage of this law. It’s an opportunity to share with the world that knowledge.”
