Long-term Revegetation Success of Industry Reclamation Techniques in the Northern Fescue Natural Subregion

Jane Lancaster, Kestrel Research Inc.
GL 13-AU-ERPC-05

This study is part of a multi-year, multi-stakeholder initiative to revisit industry revegetation strategies for native prairie in the Grassland Natural Region. Updating the guidelines is a two-step process based on collecting existing learnings, conducting field studies to gather new insights and then using this information to develop practical revegetation strategies. The first document from this initiative; “Recovery Strategies for Industrial Development in Native Prairie: The Dry Mixedgrass Natural Subregion of Alberta”, was published in June 2012.

Knowledge gained from a 2011 Mixedgrass monitoring project is being applied to the 2012 project currently underway to develop an updated revegetation strategies document for industry for the Mixedgrass Natural Subregion (NSR). AUPRF has contributed to both the 2011 and 2012 Mixedgrass projects.
The 2013 Northern Fescue project will focus on existing data collection and field monitoring studies on recovering industry disturbances to address knowledge gaps. Reporting will synthesize existing knowledge and the results of 2013 field monitoring surveys and link the results to ecological range sites and plant communities described in the newly published Range Plant Community Guide for the Northern Fescue Natural Subregion. Data collection in 2013 will provide the information to develop the Northern Fescue NSR revegetation strategies document in 2014.

Policy Issue
The effectiveness of industrial footprint reclamation or functional restoration. One of the primary challenges facing the oil and gas industry is effectively returning a range of landscapes to predisturbance or design conditions.

Knowledge Gap
Reclamation effectiveness of native prairie

Final Report