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As Canadian Natural continues to develop and evolve thermal in situ assets, it is essential to reclaim land back to equivalent land use capability for effective land management. As super pad sites are abandoned, Canadian Natural has been working to create and deploy innovative ways to reclaim these pad sites, associated roads, borrows, and pipeline corridors. Effective management of in situ footprint requires detailed long-term planning, soil management plans, and unique reclamation designs, which include functional landform creation. Evolving reclamation techniques contribute to successfully achieving the requirement for forested and peatland criteria. The annual investment is required to bring sites toward closure in a cost-effective and timely manner. Careful site management is required to ensure successful final contour including large volume of soil material balance, topsoil salvage, stream crossing restoration, wetland research, and vegetation establishment and monitoring. Lessons learned will be discussed from the evolution of strategies applied through the reclamation of 12 thermal in situ pads since 2018.

Reclamation practitioners are great at wearing multiple hats; on any given day we may play the role of a soil scientist, vegetation ecologist, farmer, construction foreman, or land agent. Real success in our field depends on bringing all those skills together to engage and collaborate with stakeholders in a meaningful way.