Eco-restoration of large-scale anthropogenic disturbances in the Boreal Shield

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Resource companies often cause large scale disturbances in the northern boreal forest. Restoration of these areas, often in the 1000's of hectares, is technologically challenging because these areas are not readily accessible by land vehicles. The purpose of this project is to develop an eco-restoration technology (ERT) for the Flin Flon/Creighton area that is suitable for application across large spatial extents. In the Flin Flon/Creighton area, the simple application of dolomitic limestone has not been universally successful. We will evaluate why liming is not always successful and develop a soil amendment that will promote revegetation of the Flin Flon/Creighton area. These amendments will first be tested in greenhouses and then beginning in year two of the project, applied in field scale plots. The effect of amendments on the type of metals present in the soil and the ability of these metals to disrupt ecosystem functioning will be assessed using advanced techniques available at the Canadian Light Source. In addition, we will investigate how these amendments are improving soil ecosystem functioning and how we can modify the amendments to account for the effects of climate change on the Flin Flon/Creighton area. Finally, at the end of five years, we will test if the amendments have resulted in a sustainable improvement in ecosystem functioning in the Flin Flon/Creighton area. If successful, this project will provide the first ecorestoration technology that will be suitable for application in Canada's northern boreal forests. This technology is expected to be commercialized by Prairie Plant Systems Inc. and be available to other resource companies operating in Canada's northern boreal forest.