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The replacement of mineral soil and capping with salvaged forest floor organic material (FFOM) is a site rehabilitation method applied over belowground installations such as pipelines. Such installations, when placed in mature forest soils, can be expected to disrupt ectomycorrhizal fungal communities when root-associated mycelia and exploratory hyphae are damaged during excavation. Soil fungal communities, bacterial communities, and soil enzymatic repertoires may be variably impacted by different site preparation schemes after disturbance. We compared effects of three rehabilitation schemes on fungal community composition, bacterial community composition, and potential hydrolase activities (N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase, acid phosphatase, and cellobiohydrolase) at two times (14 days and 5 months post-site preparation) and two sampling depths (FFOM/”upper” versus mineral/”lower” soil). We observed …