Ecological Design is More Important Than Compensatory Mitigation for Successful Restoration of Alpine Spoil Heaps

Spoil heaps of surplus rock from hydropower tunnel construction negatively impact alpine landscapes unless restored. Such spoil heaps have been created for more than 100 years, but we still lack knowledge about the relative importance of compensatory mitigation (seeding and fertilization), spoil‐heap construction method, local environmental factors, and regional climatic factors for restoration success. We studied the species composition of 19...