Rapid ecological restoration of aggregate sites: replication of mature hardwood forests

安大略骨料工业创造了447亿美元的总产值，130亿美元的劳动收入，220亿美元的GDP（占GDP总量的3.5%），在直接生产、直接二次影响和下游影响方面创造了24.5万个全职工作岗位。骨料对安大略省的基础设施建设至关重要，是一种有限的资源。靠近市场的开采通常需要移除成熟的硬木森林，由于大多数矿坑和采石场的永久洪水，这些森林永远无法在现场恢复。综合生产者计划在场外创造新的阔叶林，类似于那些被砍伐的阔叶林，但传统做法太慢，只能部分复制成熟天然森林的生态系统服务。问题很明显：恢复80%的森林可能需要150年的时间，但骨料生产商必须遵守许可证，要求有证据证明可能达到全部生态系统补偿目标——而且他们必须在典型骨料开采作业的30-40年寿命内完成这一目标。

The Ontario Aggregate Industry generated $44.7 billion of gross production, $13 billion of labour income, $22 billion of GDP (3.5% of total GDP), and 245,000 full time jobs in terms of direct production, immediate secondary impacts and downstream impacts. Aggregates are vital to infrastructure construction on Ontario and are a finite resource. Close-to-market extraction often requires removal of mature hardwood forests which can never be restored onsite due to permanent flooding of most pits and quarries. Aggregate producers plan off-site creation of new hardwood forests resembling those removed, but conventional practices are too slow and only partially replicate the ecosystem services of mature natural forests. The issue is stark: It can take 150 years to restore 80% of a forests but aggregate producers must conform to licences requiring evidence that full ecosystem compensation goals will likely be met - and they must do this within the 30-40 year lifetime of typical aggregate extraction operations. With the support of The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corporation, Walker Industrial Holdings Ltd (and subsidiary Walker Aggregates Inc.), it is propose to develop new strategies for restoring mixedwoods forests - rapidly, completely and cost-effectively. Progressive forest planting and natural regeneration strategies will be experimentally combined with nucleation (cluster planting of key tree species) and translocation of topsoil seed banks from natural stands being removed for licenced aggregate operations. This will mean saving the soil and biota from sites to be quarried and reusing them on sites that have been decommissioned. Treatment combinations supporting rapid emergence of diverse and characteristic target forest communities will significantly advance forest compensation practices, thereby satisfying regulators, facilitating access to close-to-market resources and improving the sustainability of the aggregates industry. Strategically, accelerated ecological restoration of forests could be applied across Canada to expand and reconnect existing forest fragments.