Restoration of a peatland impacted by a mineral road: the JACOS site

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In Canada, natural resource extraction is extensive across the boreal zone and infrastructures are inevitably built in peatlands. In Alberta, many of the well-sites for oil extraction are located on peatlands and each one need access roads for their construction and exploitation. The introduction of a road (a mineral-linear structure) disturbs the peatland ecosystem in different ways: loss of peat surface, disruption of the carbon accumulation function, peat compaction reducing hydraulic conductivity, and limiting the hydrologic connectivity and changing the water table level between the two sides of the road. The damming effect of roads in peatlands and its impact on the physicochemical properties also lead to changes in the vegetation composition and structure. This restoration project aims at applying ecological restoration techniques on a section of a poor fen disturbed by a 400 m mineral road located southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, and to assess their efficiency to restore peatland characteristics. The restoration will focus on re-establishing the subsurface water flow across the peatland and to recreating a suitable surface substrate atop the former road to favour the establishment of peat-accumulating plant assemblages while confining the nutrient contamination from the mineral fill below ground. Two revegetation techniques will also be tested: one that will favour Sphagnum poor fen communities on an acidic organic substrate similar to the surrounding peatland and a second that will make use of the road mineral soil already in place to simulate peatland initiation processes and promote the establishment of rich fen vegetation. This project will bring breakthrough solutions to practitioners, since there are no known cases of successful peatland restoration impacted by mineral linear features in Alberta. The project will fill critical gaps in restoration and reclamation science and peatland management. Best management practices and technical knowledge developed from these trials will benefit a broad audience across Canada where peatland ecosystems often dominate.