Current weed control regulations applicable in the Oil Sands Region require control or eradication of noxious weeds through herbicides and manual labour. However, these regulations were developed to protect agricultural lands rather than forests, and information was lacking on how noxious weeds impact boreal forest succession.

Recent COSIA projects (project codes: LE0044 and LE0077) found common noxious weeds in the boreal forest region are generally not negatively impacting growth of desired species or the return to forested habitat in the long-term. This important result is leading to exploration of alternative weed management methods that decrease the need for herbicide use and manual weed removal in revegetation efforts, and supports the regulatory adoption of the Guide to Variance Justifications for Reclamation Certification of Wellsites and Associated Facilities on Forested Land (InnoTech Alberta, 2020).

Read more about these influential findings in Optimizing Weed Control for Progressive Reclamation: Literature Review and Risk Analysis on Regulated Weeds in the Boreal Region.

Fifteen years ago, the Oil Sands Vegetation Cooperative (OSVC) was established to enable collaborative harvesting and banking of native boreal forest seed for use in revegetation and research. In 2014, the OSVC became a project led by the COSIA Land EPA. The OSVC supports seed collection initiatives in the Northern Athabasca Oil Sands, Southern Athabasca Oil Sands, and Cold Lake regions. In 2024, the organization rebranded to the COSIA Vegetation Research Committee (CVRC) (project code: LE0014). The CVRC:

• Prepares support documents such as literature reviews and data summaries, including their 2017 Seed Viability, Germination and Longevity of Selected Boreal Species literature review
• Provides technical expertise on identification, collection, storage, and deployment of seed
• Provides technical guidance on research and coordinates research project development
• Provides resources to assist in effective seed harvest, including monitoring annual seed harvests and managing records for CVRC seed inventories in the provincial seed bank
• Produces bi-annual newsletters, available at cclmportal.ca

Read more about many ongoing CVRC supported projects in the 2024 Mine & In Situ Research Report.

Past methods of reclamation often resulted in grass-dominated sites with low regeneration of trees and shrubs. Faster Forests (project codes: LJ0019 and LL0095) was launched in 2009 to research and develop techniques to speed up and enhance the recovery of reclaimed sites back to boreal forest. The Faster Forests reclamation approach includes:

• Replacing soils in a rough and loose manner, including coarse woody debris to speed up regeneration
• Preserving mounds and hollows to encourage habitat diversity 
• Replanting disturbed areas with a mix of native trees and shrubs selected to match local conditions and increase seedling survival and growth

This approach has proved very effective. It has been adopted by several COSIA and non-COSIA member companies and is now standard practice.  Inquire internally to gain access to these guide factsheets and annual reports associated with this Conoco-led project.

In addition to research, the Faster Forests program has hosted workshops and field tours — providing a forum for knowledge exchange amongst participants from industry, academia, federal and provincial government, the regulator, and other sectors. Since its inception, Faster Forests partners have planted more than five million trees and shrubs on about 2 250 hectares. ConocoPhillips celebrated 10 years of Faster Forests with this article and video.

This long-running initiative (project code: LJ0343) was started in 1980 and serves as an invaluable tool for ongoing observation, evaluation, and improvement of reclamation practices. Since monitoring plots are distributed across a wide range of reclaimed landforms and reclamation treatment types it provides invaluable information on the success of reclamation treatments across landscapes.

Overall, monitoring shows that reclamation strategies have been improving over time. Although all reclaimed sites are converging with reference boreal forest ecosystems, sites treated using modern methods are recovering more rapidly than those reclaimed longer ago.

Read more in the recent (2021) report, Reclaimed Upland Vegetation Community Trends on Syncrude’s Mine Sites, where results have been synthesized from 39 years of data.

Historically, reclamation focused on stabilizing soils and often used non-native grass and herbaceous species. Many of these sites retained grass as a dominant species, rather than growing into native forest. To align with modern reclamation objectives, a recent study at Imperial’s Cold Lake Operations (project code: LJ0291) aimed to find effective methods to set grassy sites on a trajectory towards functioning forest ecosystems. 

This research found mechanical site preparation treatments that disturb the soil, such as mounding, improve alder, poplar and white spruce survival compared to direct planting in grass. It also found that pre- and post-emergent herbicide applications are essential to control weeds, especially clover, to ensure high tree seedling survival. These treatments can be used to reduce habitat fragmentation — accelerating forest recovery for woodland caribou and other wildlife species.

Read more in the Final Cumulative Summary featured in the 2024 Mine & In Situ Research Report.

This partnership between ConocoPhillips and the NAIT Centre for Boreal Research has been ongoing for 10 years and was recently renewed for another 10 years. A suite of research projects (project codes: LJ0226 and LJ0180) explore effective and progressive methods for both interim and final reclamation practices in upland boreal forests. 

Their interim reclamation studies take a novel approach, going beyond traditional re-contouring and seeding of soil stockpiles to include the establishment of woody species. This approach aims to significantly speed up forest cover development and reduce the need for ongoing weed management.

Their final reclamation studies explore planting a wide mix of tree species, using combinations of native cover crops and herbicides to control weeds, and using coarse woody debris. Emerging results indicate mixed planting of many tree species on all slope types may work well for similar upland sites.

Read more in the Project Summary featured in the 2024 Mine & In Situ Research Report.

The NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Terrestrial Restoration Ecology, supported by COSIA (project code: LE0034), examined how boreal forest plant roots and associated microbial communities interact with natural and reclaimed soils, particularly sites that may contain residual oil. This project resulted in many graduate thesis and journal publications.

Published Theses

• Molecular identification of boreal forest roots: an expansion of techniques and investigation of limitations and biases (MSc thesis)
• Tree cores for root bores: Exploring tree rooting behaviour in bituminous soils ( MSc Thesis)
• Ectomycorrhizal functional diversity parallels fine root and leaf abundance with forest stand age (MSc Thesis)
• Cutin and suberin in mixed-wood boreal forest plants and their use as markers for origin of soil organic matter (MSc Thesis) 
• Biodegradation of hydrocarbons in bitumen: exploring plant-assisted and microbial stimulation techniques (MSc Thesis)
• Exploring how soil fungi can be used to restore native trees on reclaimed substrates containing petroleum hydrocarbons (PhD Thesis)

Journal Publications

• Expanding and testing fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphisms for identifying roots of boreal forest plant species 
• Trace metals as indicators of tree rooting in bituminous soils 
• Shifts in ectomycorrhizal exploration types parallel leaf and fine root area with forest age