Environmental Design Student to propose best management practices for silver sagebrush reclamation

Laura Hickman wants you to remember another plant when you next think of the vegetation pillars of Canada's ecosystems. In addition to cedar ruling the west coast, and pine stretching out across the boreal, Hickman hopes more concern and consideration can be given to the silver sagebrush of Canada’s grasslands.

"Silver sagebrush is a critical anchor to the semi-arid grasslands steppe," says Hickman, a Masters student with the University of Calgary's Faculty of Environmental Design.  She is investigating how the energy industry's reclamation and restoration practices can promote silver sagebrush regeneration in the Palliser Triangle region along the southern-most border of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

"This ecosystem is often overlooked and undervalued in Canada. The semi-arid steppe requires its own management practices in part because it is at the northern extent of the great semi-arid plain reaching up from the United States," explains Hickman,  "There is an abundance of unique plant and wildlife here forming communities around silver sagebrush. Many of these are listed as endangered or at risk."

These include sage grouse, which are listed as an endangered species in Canada. There are also Brewer's sparrows, sage thrashers, and sage sparrows.  Pronghorn antelope can also rely heavily on sagebrush.

Some of these like sage grouse are "obligates." This means they rely on silver sagebrush for every aspect of their lifecycle from breeding to shelter to food.

Others, like antelope rely on silver sagebrush for winter forage when other plants are frozen under snow and ice. They also enjoy the cover offered by what had traditionally been the tallest plant in the grassland ecosystem.

Unfortunately, silver sagebrush faces many challenges through its range. Approximately seventy percent of Canada’s prairie grassland ecosystems have been lost to farmland, towns, oil and gas development and transportation uses. This has left the natural prairie ecosystem fractured and sitting in a mix of private and public land spread over a wide area.

"Creating protected 'off limits' areas isn't going to do the trick alone. We have some, but the overall ecosystem is too large. We also need best management practices on 'the working landscape' to retain and enhance these sagebrush communities," notes Hickman.

In particular, Hickman is looking at the energy industry's well site and pipeline construction and reclamation practices to see which techniques have been most successful in restoring native plant communities. She hopes her analysis of sagebrush at both well sites and pipeline disturbances will support to the new restoration guidelines to be released by the Alberta government for the energy industry in 2009.

Public land managers at Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) and energy industry leaders eagerly anticipate her work. In fact, both ASRD and Petro-Canada sponsored her research, along with the Alberta Conservation Association, to learn more about sage recovery.

"Petro-Canada is pleased to support the University of Calgary's Sustainable Grasslands Applied Research Program," says John Kerkhoven, Manager of Stakeholder Relations for Petro-Canada’s North American Natural Gas business unit. “As part of our ongoing commitment to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, it makes sense to assist researchers like Laura who provide the best available science for wildlife habitat and population management relative to the activities and impacts of the energy sector."

Increased drilling pressures on top of thousands of well sites scheduled for reclamation across the province in the coming decades make it important to get reclamation right in sensitive areas like our remaining native grasslands areas.

“Alberta Sustainable Resource Development has strongly supported the University of Calgary's Sustainable Grasslands Applied Research Program.  Laura's project will allow us to better understand the recovery of Silver Sagebrush plant communities disturbed by land use practices like oil and gas development," says Barry Adams, a provincial rangeland specialist with ASRD, "Restoring the health and function of Sagebrush habitat is important to a variety of wildlife species including species at risk like Sage Grouse.  The study will allow the energy sector to reduce overall land use footprint in the prairie landscape.”

"This is actually a good news story," Hickman offers, "I'm actually surprised by the level of recovery of sagebrush around well sites and pipelines. While the findings are preliminary, natural recovery practices seem to be successful in many cases, with site contouring and low cover crop seeding densities appearing to make a big impact on the return of native plant communities in these areas."

Hickman looks forward to producing her analysis in 2009, "It's a real opportunity to contribute to reclamation efforts and assist in maintaining the health of this crucial plant community on the prairie."

Media interviews with Laura Hickman can be arranged by contacting:
Joe Obad
Communications Manager
Faculty of Environmental Design
jobad@ucalgary.ca