Reclamation Best Practices Field Tour

In 2019, the Fall Field Tour visited three compensation lakes on CNRL’s Muskeg River and Jackpine Mines and Imperial’s Kearl Mine. Fisheries compensation lakes have been constructed to replace fish habitat lost as result of mining activities – a requirement of the federal Fisheries Act and associated Fisheries Authorizations. The focus of the 2019 tour was to allow participants the opportunity to learn about reclamation challenges and successes at three constructed compensation lakes (including upland, riparian and open water areas), and foster an opportunity for dialogue about best practices. A half-day workshop on Day 2 provided a venue for further discussion about observations, challenges, opportunities and gaps associated with compensation lakes, and celebrated the Oil Sands Vegetation Cooperative’s 10th anniversary.

Lessons Learned: (1) lake filling is a challenge; (2) snags attract raptors to control small mammal populations; (3) community engagement is important; barriers to use of plants by Indigenous communities may be emerging issue; (4) avoid seeding competitive grass species to allow understory and planted species to thrive; (5) reduce disturbance footprints by using existing laydown areas; (6) log jams /logs chained to bottom of lakes can cause jam/erosion issues; (7) handpicking weeds can be successful in areas where herbicide would be detrimental; (8) fish species diversity increased from baseline without active stocking of fish. Areas for Future Work: (1) plan for/enhance opportunistic wetlands to increase habitat diversity; (2) identify plants that can tolerate a range of moisture regimes; (3) determine appropriate volumes/ types of CWD; (4) manage fire hazard perception re. CWD storage; (5) explore sharing CWD amongst different operators; (6) collaborate in exploring use of eDNA technology; (7) determine how COSIA/CAPP can help bring forward question of whether building compensation lakes is still a priority in terms of habitat compensation; (8) bring forward canopy closure for weed control in the boreal forest; and (9) share best practices/lessons learned among operators and improve public perception of the important work being done.