Innovation Anthology #680:
Simon Bockstette is determined to give tree seedlings a fighting chance when it comes to reclaiming mine sites.
This forest ecologist at the University of Alberta first treated half his research site at the Genesee mine with the new McNab Ripper.
This improves access to water for the tree roots.
Then he planted some plots with aspen seedlings, some with a very aggressive grass called smooth brome, and other plots were planted with both.
SIMON BOCKSTETTE: We’ve been watching those seedlings for three years now. So we were watching the shoot growth, the leaf area development and also what’s going on underneath the surface. One thing that we see, and that is nothing new, is that the grass is an extremely strong competitor. But the nice thing that we see now is that when it comes to access to soil water, we do see quite a bit of an improvement in the treated areas. So the trees had about 30 percent more water available to them. And if we look at our soil sensors, we can see that the soil layers in which they forage for water actually don’t dry out as much as they do in the untreated soil.
The next step for Simon Bockstette is to excavate some trees and to conduct DNA sequencing on the roots.
Thanks today to Capital Power
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Capital Power
Program Date: 2015-04-09