Cold Lake Operations Vegetation Plot Monitoring

A False Colour Infrared (FCIR) vegetation monitoring program has been ongoing at Imperial Oil Resources (IOR) Cold Lake Operations (CLO) since 1999 to determine the state of regional vegetation health. The leaf sampling component of the program investigates the amount of total sulphur in aspen leaf samples. The study area was expanded in 2010 to add the Mahihkan and Nabiye Project areas and it was recommended that an aspen leaf sample site and two additional control sites be added. This project reports sulphur levels in aspen leaves collected in August 2011 at these 3 new sites.

Results: Site 9 – 1700 μg/g, Site 10 (control) – 1400 μg/g, Site 11 (control) – 1800 μg/g. The total sulphur level at the new control sites are similar to the control site at Wolf Lake which ranged from 1700 to 2100 μg/g.