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

阿尔伯塔省的大片土地受到资源勘探和开采干扰的影响。目前的立法要求运营商将受干扰的地区开垦为“同等的陆地能力”。然而，在城市、农业和工业景观中，非本地物种会抑制本地植物群，显著减缓自然演替。这意味着要达到省级填海要求往往需要比预期更长的时间。因此，鼓励理想的本地植物物种迅速发展，是确保新填海土地不被非本地物种侵占的关键一步。该项目旨在通过部署(i)苗圃产生的根碎片，（ii）设计用于阻止不良植被最初发展的除草剂，使种植的本地物种在建立时处于领先地位，（iii）第三，评估直接播种或“搭便车”种植的草本物种（草和牧草）与传统的树木和灌木幼苗种植相结合的组合。该项目的好处包括测试新颖、简单、实用和廉价的方法，以促进在贫瘠景观上更快地建立本地植物。本项目所描述的所有技术都不需要复杂的设备，可以很容易地转移到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.