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

阿尔伯塔的大片公有土地受到资源勘探和开采干扰的影响。目前的立法要求经营者将受干扰的地区开垦成“同等土地能力”。然而，在城市、农业和工业景观中，非本地物种可以抑制本地植物群，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，要确保新填海土地不会被非本地物种取代，鼓励本地植物迅速发展是一个关键步骤。该项目旨在通过部署（i）苗圃产生的根碎片，（ii）旨在防止不良植被初期发展的除草剂，使种植的本地物种在建立方面领先一步;（iii）第三，评估草本物种的组合（禾本科和杂类草）直接播种或“搭便车”-与传统的乔木和灌木幼苗种植结合种植。该项目的好处包括测试新颖，但简单，实用和廉价的方法，以促进更快的本地植物建立在贫瘠的景观。本项目所述的所有技术都不需要复杂的设备，可以很容易地转让给本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.**