Afforestation is a popular practice of the recovery of landscape affected by open-cast coal mining. We investigated what impact the observable characteristics of restored forests have on their attractiveness for recreation framed as a one hour walk in a respective type of forest. In this study, we elaborate on some of the observable characteristics which have been previously found in the literature to affect the perceived attractiveness of outdoor environments. Environmental preference data were collected online using a quasi-representative sample of affected and control populations of the Czech Republic (N = 869). The questionnaire employed visual representations of typical reclaimed forest sites on spoil heaps in the Sokolov mining district. A mediation analysis revealed that forests growing in post-mining areas are perceived more negatively than the typical commercial spruce forest due to their lower permeability, lower level of stewardship, and perceived low safety. However, there are differences in observed characteristics also between different types of restored forests, even when controlling the effect of forest age. The results show for forestry practice that while some of the observed characteristics change by themselves with the increasing age of the forest (permeability, perceived safety, and naturalness of successional forests), improvement in others requires targeted after-care (perceived stewardship). In any case, our results are promising in that they imply that the recreational value of restored forests in post-mining areas may further increase in the future.

中文翻译：

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开采后森林的可观察特征如何影响其娱乐吸引力？

植树造林是恢复露天采煤影响的景观的一种流行做法。我们调查了恢复森林的可观察特征对其在相应类型的森林中步行一小时的娱乐吸引力的影响。在这项研究中，我们详细阐述了之前在文献中发现的一些可观察到的特征，这些特征会影响室外环境的感知吸引力。环境偏好数据是使用捷克共和国受影响人群和控制人群的准代表性样本在线收集的（N= 869）。调查问卷采用了索科洛夫矿区弃土堆上典型复垦林地的视觉表示。中介分析显示，与典型的商业云杉林相比，在开采后地区生长的森林因渗透性较低、管理水平较低和安全性较低而被认为更加负面。然而，即使控制了林龄的影响，不同类型的恢复林之间的观察特征也存在差异。林业实践的结果表明，虽然一些观察到的特征会随着森林年龄的增加而发生变化（渗透性、感知安全性和演替森林的自然性），但其他特征的改善需要有针对性的后期护理（感知管理）。任何状况之下，