Tools for Arctic Revegetation: What's in Your Toolbox?

Revegetation in arctic climates is a challenge for many reasons. There are two approaches to arctic revegetation: natural regeneration and active reclamation. Natural regeneration is an inexpensive option that can provide a diversity of locally adapted species. This has been shown to be effective on smaller disturbances at the De Beers Snap Lake Mine. However, natural regeneration can be quite slow and will not work as well on large disturbances where seeds and spores have to travel a long way to populate disturbed areas. Intervention using active reclamation techniques may help accelerate establishment and maturation of reclaimed sites. Determining when and how to intervene can be challenging and can affect the results of reclamation efforts. Erosion, costs, accessibility, diversity, stress factors, size of disturbed succession must be considered and, in some cases, a combination of solutions may be required for specific areas or for a whole site.