Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

Peatlands, a type of wetland, are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store, providing indispensable?nature-based solutions for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change. Despite their enormous value, these unique ecosystems continue to be strongly impacted by human activities. In Alberta, seismic line density resulting from oil sand exploration is particularly high where approximately 345,000 km of seismic lines are affecting over 1,900 km2 of the peatland area. Mechanical mounding (or Inverted Mounding; IM) is the most common technique to promote tree establishment on seismic lines. However, the method comes with severe limitations and a prohibitively high cost to apply at scale. With the objective of trialing new mounding techniques to overcome IM’s confines, between 2019-2022, NAIT’s Centre for Boreal Research (CBR) tested two alternative mounding approaches (upright mounding (UM) and the hummock transfer technique (HTT). Early results have been extremely promising, but to determine that this success is sustainable and that UM and HTT offer measurable benefits over the conventional IM, systematic, long-term monitoring must be conducted. This project seeks to fill the current gap in the systematic comparison of conventional and alternative mounding techniques in terms of vegetation and ecosystem functions. The CBR is currently working in collaboration with Alberta Environment and Parks (Government of Alberta), to apply the innovative HTT to restore seismic lines through peatlands within the Upper Peace and Smoky-Wapiti sub-basins of NW Alberta. Building upon this strong partnership, this ARD project will expand the experimental design by including additional mounding treatments (IM and UM). This research will bridge the critical gaps in knowledge that greatly limit the ability to develop and apply efficient approaches for seismic line restoration in peatland habitats. The need for efficient, cost-effective reclamation methods and techniques has never been greater to meet government regulatory requirements and mitigate climate change (with new reports stating that faster adaptation could save Canada billions). Restoring wetland habitats is directly aligned with the Government of Alberta’s provincial Wetland Policy and will support Canada’s climate policies and targets, including achieving net zero emissions by 2050.