This week in CLRA National News, we are featuring the CLRA Alberta Chapter AGM & Conference, a call for content for Fall/Winter 2023 Canadian Reclamation Magazine, the Dr. Edward M. Watkin Award, new career opportunities with Solstice Environmental Management, Summit, NAIT, and Basin Environmental Ltd., and more!
Read MoreThis week in CLRA National News, we are introducing the CLRA National 2023-2024 Board of Directors, featuring the artist behind the 2022 IN-TECH Reclamation Award, a call for applications and nominations for our Ontario Chapter and National Awards and Scholarships, a new career opportunity with Keneco Environmental Inc., and more!
Read MoreThe Canadian Land Reclamation Association/Association canadienne de réhabilitation des sites dégradés (CLRA/ACRSD) Board is pleased to announce Kelly Zadko, Vice President Business Development at North Shore Environmental Consultants Inc. as our new President. Kelly will be leading the National Chapter and its Board of Directors to promote Canadian reclamation and remediation practitioners as world innovators and leaders in the environmental field.
Read MoreShannon Carla King is a Canadian painter who, after 30 years in the energy industry is now a full-time artist focused on capturing the raw, natural beauty of reclamation, preservation, and conservation success stories in acrylic paintings.
Read MoreBehnaz Bahroudi is an M.Sc. Student at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and a Campaigns Committee representative at the TRU Students’ Union. Currently, Behnaz is studying the reclamation of a closed tailings storage facility at New Afton Mine. The primary goal of her research is to provide recommendations for the return of a sustainable ecosystem by determining appropriate soil cover depths and amendments.
Read MoreCanada is home to a significant proportion (27 percent) of the world's peatlands. In their natural state, peatlands provide a specific habitat for many species of flora and fauna, and they provide many ecosystem services useful to human populations, especially the sequestration of carbon as accumulated peat.
Read MoreDr. Clinton Smyth (Clint) has spent a long and accomplished career working in the land reclamation field. He first worked in the ecological sciences doing forestry-related research with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in the late 1970s. He began to work in land reclamation in mining as a student in the early 1980s, receiving a scholarship from the B.C. Ministry of Mines as a graduate student (at the University of Victoria) in 1984, and has worked steadily and tirelessly on land-reclamation-related issues ever since.
Read MoreThrough her career as a researcher, instructor, and consultant, Kelly Ostermann has taught, mentored, and collaborated with many students and professionals. She has contributed behind the scenes in her volunteer work with NGOs, and her relationships with regulators, her professional organization, and the public. Through this collaboration and mentorship, Kelly’s contribution isn’t just what she has done, but how she has influenced others in their work in reclamation. This is represented by the number of graduate students she worked with and researchers at the U of A, and the associated acknowledgments that are listed in her résumé. Her consulting career has allowed her to collaborate with diverse discipline experts and with people of all experience levels. This has created opportunities to share her knowledge base with many practitioners.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreReclamation 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.
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