Recovery of peatland donor sites on pre-existing linear features for moss layer transfer to reclaim in-situ oil and gas footprint in Alberta

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Hundreds of thousands of in-situ oil and gas features including well pads and roads are scattered across Alberta's boreal region, many in wetlands. Recent advancement in in-situ footprint restoration in peatland indicates that the collection and transfer of donor moss material is a viable revegetation technique. It is based on the Moss Layer Transfer Technique (MLTT) first developed for post-harvest horticultural peat fields in eastern Canada. It involved the collection of the top 10-cm peat profile and transferring the diaspores, including moss fragments, spores, seeds, and rhizomes, onto the prepared peat surface. NAIT Centre for Boreal Research has adapted the technique to restore in-situ oil and gas features in peatland. Instead of targeting natural peatland for donor harvest as per the MLTT, existing linear features including winter roads and cutlines were targeted. Over the last decade, we have gained significant insight and confidence in the feasibility of MLTT as a revegetation technique for in-situ footprint restoration in peatland. One of the earliest restored well pads did meet the provincial reclamation criteria as a certifiable peatland. However, donor collection inevitably creates an additional disturbance to a site. While decades of research on restored horticultural peat fields have proven that donor areas in natural peatland can recover after ten years, similar studies on the recovery of harvested donor areas along existing linear features do not exist. This study aims to address this key knowledge gap by studying six donor areas (ranging from 3 to 11 years post-harvest) along existing winter roads for the restoration of two well pads and one access road in northern Alberta. We will compare and investigate environmental factors associated with vegetation development between donor, non-harvested control, and adjacent natural areas. This study will provide assurance for industry and practitioners to incorporate and apply the MLTT in the restoration of in-situ features. The findings of our study can help regulators set benchmark conditions for reclamation certification and help update and develop wetland-related policies and land management guidelines.