Researchers at the University of Alberta are experiencing great results using old trees and branches to help reclaim old mining sites in the oil sands.
Variety of plants on woody debris
“We’re taking what’s called woody debris – like limbs andchunks of trees – and placing them on the reclaimed site and we’re finding thatit actually helps speed up reclamation a lot,” says Dr. Anne Naeth, Professor ofEcology and Land Reclamation at the University of Alberta (U of A).
The tree debris provides pine cones and other woodyvegetation, while also providing some much needed shelter for growing plants inan otherwise big, windy field.
“It’s just not a place where a plant has much protectionfrom the elements,” says Naeth.
“So when you get this woody debris all over the place, notonly is it a source of plant
seed, but it also produces these nice little safe sites soplants can get in out of the wind or get in out of the cold and actually grow alot better.”
The woody debris is collected from land that is about to bedisturbed for mining operations. The researchers also collect the leaves anddecomposing material on the forest floor; organic matter that is rich withseeds.
“By using this material we can get native species growingthat you can’t buy seed for and that’s really exciting because one of the bigproblems with reclaiming a huge area like the oil sands is where are you goingto get this native seed?” says Naeth.
“A lot of that stuff isn’t even sold by a seed company.”
Naeth and a team of researchers from the U of A will beworking on these and other reclamation projects with researchers from Germany’sHelmholtz Association as part of a five-year, multi-million dollar jointproject with the university. The Helmholtz Alberta Initiative (HAI) willdevelop technologies to help address sustainability challenges within the oilsands.
“German researchers have had a lot of experience working invery dramatically disturbed areas with their huge coal mines and they bring alot of expertise from having worked on these sites longer than we have,” saysNaeth.
The reclamation projects will examine the interrelationshipbetween plants and soil on a large scale at actual reclamation sites in the oilsands. “We want to be looking at all this on a landscape basis,” says Naeth.“Not in the lab, not in little research plots but on landscape-based plots andthat is quite different from what a lot of people are doing.”
The joint research gets underway in 2010 says Naeth.
“When you get people together and you share your experienceand ideas, you end up with something way better than either of you could havecome up with on your own because we look at things differently.”