Garrett Brown: Faster Forests 

Garrett Brown can see the forests, and the trees. He is an Environment and Regulatory Coordinator at ConocoPhillips Canada.

Part of Garrett’s work with the company’s Oil Sands Development Teams includes advising them on regulatory requirements and helping prepare environmental and regulatory applications. He also works with the company’s construction and reclamation teams to better understand how to minimize the impact on the natural environment.

Garrett is working on an innovative new reclamation program called Faster Forests that’s aimed at reducing the company’s environmental footprint by accelerating reforestation of oil sands leases. “We believe Faster Forests has the potential to restore the forest more quickly than it would otherwise be restored, while exceeding regulatory expectations,” he says.

Forests, Faster

A southern Athabasca oil sands region lease
Left: Standard reclamation
Right: Faster Forest reclamation
Both sites were reclaimed at the same time
Read more about this innovation story

Standard reclamation programs for exploratory wellsites usually involve using natural restoration methods allowing native vegetation to re-establish itself, or planting a mix of native grass seeds and letting trees come along naturally. Both processes can take many years to re-establish.

Faster Forests will speed things up by planting three species of trees seedlings; spruce, birch and aspen. The seedlings have a 10cm “plug” of soil and established roots as well as a 20cm tree stem. The program is based on recommendations from a long-term study on reclamation from the University of Alberta. The first seedlings hit the ground in the summer of 2009, with 30,000 trees expected to be planted by the end of the year.

As the program develops, ConocoPhillips is realizing several other ways to expand the benefits. “Faster Forests is about more than just planting trees,” says Garrett. “We plan to evolve the program to include other types of vegetation, involve local First Nations, and leverage best practices to create healthy forest ecosystems and reduce the footprint of our oil sands projects.”

Garrett also finds satisfaction in his job because he knows he and the company are doing the right thing. “People have always expected sound environmental performance from companies in the oil and gas industry, but this is increasingly becoming more a part of our social license to operate,” he says. “People don’t want to work for, or do business with, companies that refuse to consider environmental and social issues in their day-to-day business.”

“Many other companies are attempting to accelerate reclamation and if best practices can be shared and adopted then the whole industry will benefit,” said Garrett. ConocoPhillips collaborates with several other producers on better reclamation practices, improved site construction, and other ways to develop more sustainable operations.

Learn more about Faster Forests