Innovation Anthology #464:
When mining for oil sands, if the dirt and clay are simply dug up and stockpiled,
that destroys most of the roots and plants that populate the forest floor.
Dr. Simon Landhausser is looking at a new proposition for reclamation. And that’s to dig out the forest floor and keep it intact.
Dr. Landhausser holds an NSERC Industry Chair in Forest Reclamation at the University of Alberta.
DR. SIMON LANDHAUSSER: What we are trying to do is create an opportunity to transfer these materials from those sites directly onto a reclamation site and take advantage of those propagules and get a more diverse system just on its own without having to plant as many of the species and we gain more species than we can actually plant. So I think it is not only good to do this. This is actually a step forward in what we are doing with these sites which are being mined any which way. The amount of effort is actually double if you stockpile stuff because you dump it in the stockpile and then you move it from the stockpile to the reclamation site. And it you move it directly from the salvage site to the reclamation site, it’s one step versus two steps.
Dr. Simon Landhausser presented this research at the recent CONRAD conference on oil sands reclamation.
Thanks today to SYNCRUDE
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2012-03-13