The overall goal of this project was to attempt to assess whether noxious weeds managed in the boreal forest are significantly impacting boreal succession using publicly available literature, available vegetation survey data and field experience of oil sands operations practitioners. Current regulations require operators to control or eradicate noxious or prohibited noxious weeds, respectively. Presently, this is accomplished through the use of herbicides and manual labour (e.g., hand-pulling). This project aimed to demonstrate whether, under certain site conditions, there is a third potential alternative – utilizing successional processes and forest vegetation development to better address some of the issues raised above.
This report summarizes the results of a retrospective case study of oil sands data and development of a risk analysis framework.
Project objectives were:
1. To compile current information on weed status and management programs in the boreal ecosystem, for both mining and in-situ oil sands operations.
2. To determine the risk factors of the regulated weeds that have been observed in the boreal ecosystem, with this objective being addressed by:
- a. Developing fact sheets summarizing key characteristics that have historically made these species problematic: their known distribution in Alberta and tolerance, known impacts to environment, and current management options.
- b. Completing a retrospective case study on available data sets where vegetation monitoring had occurred for at least three years to examine whether noxious weeds appeared to influence the development of woody vegetation and if these species were persistent over time.
- c. Developing a risk analysis framework based on the results from the literature review and retrospective case study and with consideration of a risk analysis tool - that was developed by Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, nd).
3. To determine whether the current approach to weed management (i.e., active control and eradication) of these regulated weed species is necessary in boreal reclaimed sites or if other methods could be used (i.e. monitoring).
4. To identify whether there is enough evidence to reduce the number of weeds requiring active management in the boreal ecosystem.