Long-term Revegetation Success of Industry Reclamation Techniques for Native Grassland: Northern Fescue Natural Subregion

This study is part of a multi-year, multi-stakeholder initiative to revisit industry revegetation strategies for native prairie in the Grassland Natural Region. Updating the guidelines is a two-step process based on collecting existing learnings, conducting field studies to gather new insight and then using this information to develop practical recovery strategies.

This report presents a literature review and summarizes data collection from several sources to assess whether past and present reclamation strategies are achieving restoration of native grasslands in the Northern Fescue NSR.
The purpose of this study is to:

• Assess whether current reclamation methods are achieving the desired long‐term goal of restoring native prairie (successes and areas to improve);
• Provide the long-term data to develop best management practices and appropriate revegetation strategies for industrial disturbances on native prairie in the Northern Fescue NSR;
• Link long-term monitoring data to current tools for reclamation planning, including GVI, AGRASID, the Range Plant Community Guides and the Rangeland Health Assessment handbook;
• Use the information collected to develop and update recovery strategies to support the intent of the 2010 Reclamation Criteria for Grasslands and to provide guidance for the oil and gas industry, reclamation practitioners, contractors, landowners and Government of Alberta regulatory authorities.