Land

An aspen sapling stands about a foot high, with fragile sticks for branches and a hairy little root plug – it hardly looks like a game-changer in the world of oil sands development. But the oil sands companies collaborating together in OSLI have a lot of faith in that aspen.

The Oil Sands Leadership Initiative, also known as OSLI, is a collaborative network of companies including ConocoPhillips Canada, Nexen Inc., Statoil Canada, Suncor Energy Inc. and Total E&P Canada. These companies are focused on improving social, economic and environmental performance in the area in which they operate. As part of that effort, OSLI's Land Stewardship Working Group is implementing accelerated restoration practices, or growing 'faster forests,' as part of their vision to collectively speed restoration of forest cover to areas disturbed by exploration activity.

"Faster Forests is just one tool in our toolbox," explains Land Stewardship Chair, Will Hughesman. "We're exploring many ways in which we can reduce the footprint of oil sands development, and minimize access in the region, all with a goal of increasing the quality of habitat for animals like caribou." Mining and in situ oil sands development includes cutting seismic lines and building well sites for drilling to ascertain the best ways of accessing the bitumen reserves far underground. Fragmentation of the forest cover is a concern for caribou because they are potentially exposed more often to predators than in a consistent forest cover. OSLI companies are taking a holistic view of the region, and tackling the issue of fragmented forest cover by planting seedlings to speed up the growth of trees in disturbed areas. Standard reclamation programs for exploratory well sites plant a mix of native grass seeds and allow the trees to come in naturally.

The primary areas of planting are exploratory well sites and core holes, which are typically drilled in winter. In 2009, the OSLI companies collectively planted approximately 170,000 trees on reclaimed drilling pads in an effort to accelerate the speed that these disturbances fill in with mature trees. In 2010, that number increased substantially with 247,000 trees planted.

"Right now our five year goal is an additional one million trees," Hughesman states. "In 2011, we're looking at expanding the program by investigating a local seed collection program." Harvesting seeds from trees in the area and then having them grown in a commercial greenhouse to become the plantings for future years allows for local genetic adaptation in the regenerating forest.

Faster Forests is about more than planting trees. It's about rehabilitating wildlife habitat and creating opportunities in the local community through rapid positive action. And that's where the promise of hundreds of thousands of those little saplings come in...

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