Syncrude’s Upland Vegetation Monitoring Program

This project is a long term vegetation monitoring initiative on Syncrude’s reclaimed mine sites near Fort McMurray, Alberta, started in 1980. The program consists of re-measured plots distributed across a wide range of reclaimed landforms and reclamation treatments. Roughly 125 sampling locations are active (as of 2021). Each plot is planned for re-assessment on a five-year interval. Objectives are to: (1) evaluate which discrete locations on reclaimed lands have understory plant communities becoming increasingly similar over time to locations within the adjacent un-mined landscapes, (2) make observations on which reclamation outcomes are predictable based on conventional ecological theory, and (3) discuss how observations of existing community trends can contribute to continuous improvement of reclamation practices. This 2021 report summarizes up to 39 years of plant community development trends, contrasted with a target condition.

Overall conclusions are: (1) patterns of plant community change on reclaimed sites are consistent with Alberta’s objectives for reclamation, which require increasing similarity between reclaimed and reference plant community structure over time; (2) a developing tree canopy has a strong influence on these patterns, where native forest-dependent species gain an increasing competitive advantage over time as compared to early arriving ruderal or weedy species; (3) expected natural processes, consistent with conventional ecological theory, are leading to reclaimed sites demonstrating substantial convergence with locally common boreal forest ecosystems; and (4) growing environments of more recently reclaimed areas appear more favourable to rapid development of target communities than growing environments associated with earlier reclaimed areas.