In mid 2020, the one millionth tree seedling was placed in the ground at Canadian Natural’s Albian Sands site, an oil sands mining project 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alberta. A million trees may sound like a lot, but it pales in comparison to the 4.3 million trees the company has planted across their operations, and the 9,200 hectares of land they have reclaimed– an area equivalent to 11,500 Canadian football fields.

“It’s more than a big number,” says Art Gierach, a reclamation planner at Albian. “It shows we’re committed to reducing our environmental footprint, reclaiming disturbed land and returning it to local communities.” Oil sands development is subject to some of the strictest reclamation standards in the world and companies are required by law to return disturbed lands to a self-sustaining state. However, Canadian Natural and other COSIA members are going farther, continually advancing reclamation science with the aspiration of becoming world leaders in land management.

Progressive reclamation is a highly technical business that ensures when part of a facility site is no longer required for operations, it is quickly and efficiently returned to nature. Seeding with a variety of trees, shrubs, and other vegetation is one of the final steps in this process. Northern Alberta’s boreal forests can take decades to grow to maturity, Gierach notes, but it can take even longer if each step isn’t undertaken in a thoughtful way. This is where the best science and techniques become important.

The company’s area-based program, for example, strategically groups reclamation projects together so that people, equipment, and technologies can be coordinated more efficiently. This approach brings re-vegetation timelines, typically three to five years, down to two to four years, a 22-33 per cent drop. It also ensures a greater diversity of natural plant species. This industry-leading technique is now the go-to model for other companies.

Even revegetation is taken to new levels. To ensure high quality seeds for growing trees, Canadian Natural is a partner with the Oil Sands Vegetation Co-op (OSVC), a COSIA initiative that supports successful reclamation by harvesting, registering and banking local seeds for companies to use – more than 43 different species in all. OSVC also provides a forum for members to develop and collaborate on best practices.

Reclaimed sites are monitored continuously for many years afterwards to ensure that a sustainable ecosystem is integrating successfully with the surrounding natural habitat, usually with the help of local communities. Recently, Canadian Natural collaborated with Fort McKay Elders to implement traditional protocols for tree planting, including smudge ceremonies and ceremonial tobacco blessings. Traditional plants, such as Rat Root, Cranberry, and Bearberry, have also been incorporated into the company’s progressive reclamation plans.

Through COSIA, the company has now shared about $40 million in reclamation research and innovation and is currently collaborating with other members to expand its knowledge of commercial-scale tree and shrub growing. “That’s what’s great about being an industry partner of COSIA,” Gierach says. “With all the members combining their expertise and experience, we’re able to get more out of reclamation than we could individually.” 

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