Innovation Anthology #672:

Jessica Piercey

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The summer of 2014 marked the third growing season for reclamation at the Sand Hill Fen at Syncrude’s mine site in northeastern Alberta.

 

According environmental scientist Jessica Piercey, researchers working on this project to recreate a peatland are already seeing positive results.

 

This includes the first moss survey.

 

JESSICA PIERCEY: So we have 21 different mosses that have come in.   And in this case, when the mosses are growing and they are decomposing and new mosses are growing on top, that’s the beginning of peat forming.  That actually was discovered by Dr. Dale Vitt during his moss survey this past summer.  So that was super exciting for us.   And really what we need to do is  understand how and why that peat formed and can we achieve that on a broader scale.  Some of the other really cool results are just learning what kind of native boreal wetland plants we can use for reclamation.  You know, you can go to a nursery and buy a hundred jack pine trees, but you can’t go to a nursery and buy a hundred carex aquatilus water sedge.

 

Jessica Piercey says everyday at the Sand Hill Fen,  she works with 40 to 50 researchers from across Canada and the United States.

 

Thanks today to SYNCRUDE

 

Learn more at INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY.COM

 

I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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Syncrude

 

Program Date: 2015-03-12