Accelerating cover dominance of native plant communities to exclude undesirable ruderal and weedy species from reclamation sites

艾伯塔省的大片皇室土地受到资源勘探和开采干扰的影响。目前的法律要求运营商将受干扰的地区填海造地，使其达到“同等土地能力”。然而，在城市、农业和工业形状的景观中，非本地物种会抑制本地植物区系，并显著减缓自然演替。这意味着，满足省级填海要求所需的时间往往比预期的要长。因此，要确保新填海区不会被非本地物种取代，鼓励迅速发展合乎需要的本地植物品种，是非常重要的一步。该项目旨在通过部署(I)苗圃产生的根碎片，(Ii)旨在防止不良植被的初始发展的除草剂，使种植的本土物种在建立时领先一步，来比较测试本地物种快速占据场地的原理，以及(Iii)第三，评估草本植物(草和杂草)的组合--与传统的乔木和灌木幼苗种植相结合种植。该项目的好处包括测试新的、但简单、实用和廉价的方法，以促进在贫瘠的土地上更快地建立本地植物。为该项目描述的所有技术不需要复杂的设备，可以很容易地转让给该项目的工业合作伙伴和面临类似条件的其他行业。

Large areas of Crown lands in Alberta are affected by resource exploration and extraction disturbances. The current legislation requires operators to reclaim disturbed areas to 'equivalent land capability". In urban, agricultural, and industrial shaped landscapes, however, non-native species can suppress the native flora and significantly slow down natural succession. This means that it often takes longer than anticipated to meet provincial reclamation requirements. Therefore, encouraging speedy development of desirable, native plant species is a crucial step to ensure that a newly reclaimed site is not overtaken by non-native species. This project aims to comparatively test the principle of speedy site-occupancy of native species through deployment of (i) nursery produced root fragments, (ii) herbicides designed to preclude initial development of undesirable vegetation, giving planted native species a head-start in establishment and (iii) third to evaluate a combination of herbaceous species (grasses and forbs) either directly-seeded or 'hitchhiker'-planted in conjunction with conventional tree and shrub seedling planting. The benefits of this project include testing novel, yet simple, practical and inexpensive approaches to facilitate faster native plant establishment on barren landscapes. All techniques described for this project do not require sophisticated equipment and can readily be transferred to the industrial partners of this project and other industries facing similar conditions.**