A large diameter natural gas pipeline was constructed in 1990 through 12 km of the Great Sand Hills region of southwestern Saskatchewan. The harsh environmental conditions necessitated extraordinary construction and environmental mitigation measures to control wind erosion and successfully revegetate the highly erodible dune soils and fragile plant communities.
Mitigation measures included construction procedures that reduced the size of disturbance, public and worker educational extension programs, dormant season construction, topsoil seedbank salvage, placed fertilizer application, crimping weed free flax straw, straw bale wind barriers, brush mulch wind barriers, surface manipulation with the Hodder Gouger, fencing-out cattle, and the application of a seed mixture of agronomic legumes and native grasses. Vegetation and soil erosion was monitored for four years.
Saskatchewan government reclamation standards were met for plant density, canopy cover, erosion control, and composition of native species (minimum 50%). The most successful sand stabilization treatment was a straw mulch applied at 6 to 9 t/ha and anchored by crimping. A brush mulch wind barrier of dead shrub branches salvaged prior to construction from sagebrush stands on the right-of-way was highly effective in controlling wind erosion on exposed sites. After four years, the canopy cover was 88% native species. On low-lying, protected sites, vegetation was stable enough after 4 years to resume cattle grazing. Exposed sites on high-relief terrain may not be ready for cattle grazing for many more years.