##  [Restoration of a Sphagnum-Dominated Peatland Impacted by a Mineral Road by the Burial Under Peat Layer Method](/resource/restoration-sphagnum-dominated-peatland-impacted-mineral-road-burial-under-peat-layer) 

Organization

[Laval University](/organization/laval-university)

[Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA)](/organization/canadian-land-reclamation-association-clra)

 

 

Project

[National CLRA Conference Papers](/project/national-clra-conference-papers)

 

Resource Type

[Report](/taxonomy/term/38)

 

 

Author(s)

Kathy Pouliot

Line Rochefort

 

 

Original Authors

Kathy Pouliot

Line Rochefort

 

 

Resource Date:

2016

 

Page Length

4

 

 

A restoration project has been conducted on two peatlands where access roads  
built from mineral material were constructed under power lines: at Sainte-Eulalie  
and Chénéville (in the Centre-du-Québec and Outaouais regions, respectively).  
We examined if burying mineral material in a bog is an effective method to  
restore the peatland conditions that were prevailing before the disturbance. The  
restoration by the “Burial Under Peat Layer Method” (BUPLM) consists in  
excavating and burying the mineral material in situ, beneath the underlying peat  
material. The surface is then mechanically flattened and revegetated using  
diaspores from the adjacent untouched peatland. In order to allow comparison,  
half of the road at the Chénéville site has been restored with this method, and the  
other half by removing the mineral material and replacing it with horticultural  
peat. In Sainte-Eulalie, only the BULMP was applied. We hypothesize that the  
BUPLM is efficient at confining the nutrients introduced by the mineral material  
underneath the peat layer, at recreating a surface elevation similar to the  
adjacent areas and at re-establishing typical peatland vegetation.