Boreal Wetland Reconstruction Workshop

On April 16th and 17th, 2012 a workshop with 25 international experts was held in Chantilly, France, hosted by Total. Participants included academics from US, Canadian, French, German, and Polish Universities/research institutes and wetland conservation organizations. The objective of the workshop was to obtain expertise in wetland ecosystem reconstruction including indicator criteria for determining success and understanding risks due to natural and man-made stressors. The workshop focused on three areas: (1) wetland ecosystem reconstruction in the boreal forest; (2) determination of criteria to assess the success of wetland ecosystem construction; and (3) evaluation of natural and man-made stressors with demonstrated potential to increase the risk of reconstruction failure.

The workshop was productive and interactive, functioned as a peer-review of current mine closure plans and oil sands research by international experts, and enabled transfer of wetland restoration/reclamation frameworks, techniques, etc. To solidify “state of knowledge” a peer-reviewed manuscript will be developed to establish research directions and future priorities. Key learnings from start-up of a mine to final reclamation certification: (1) complete detailed survey of pre-disturbance landscape; (2) promote conservation where possible; (3) define success; review regulatory/objectives which guide development of closure plans; (4) consult key stakeholders on what reclaimed landscape should look like; (5) use realistic hydrological model to optimize wetland end land types and proportions decided by stakeholders; (6) determine which wetlands are achievable and their trajectories for certification; (7) design wetlands with appropriate landscape and watershed scales; (8) progressive wetland reclamation; (9) use directly placed wetland soils to reclaim wetlands; (10) actively revegetate wetlands; (11) treat poor water quality; (12) use regulatory certified criteria and indicators to evaluate the state of reclamation; (13) compensate for areas of carbon loss.