Environmental Assessments

Linear Facility Route Selection & Environmental Protection Planning
Completed and implemented for hundreds of pipelines, roads and highways, railways, and hydro lines in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and in the Yukon.

Surface Mine Land Reclamation
Soil and overburden inventories, soil handling plans, assessment of agricultural capability, design of post-mine landscapes, soil and crop plot research, reclamation literature reviews.
Projects completed for 16 coal and oil sands mines in the mountain-foothills, northern forest and prairie regions of Western Canada.

Soil Damage Mitigation
Soil rehabilitation land for agricultural land degraded by topsoil loss, compaction, erosion, waterlogging and salinization, and oil and brine spills have been prepared for numerous sites.

Natural Areas Rehabilitation
Landscape sensitivity and management guidelines, soil reclamation and revegetation plans, and monitoring systems have been prepared for alpine and subalpine areas in National parks; and for sand dune and badlands landscapes on the prairies.

Reclamation Certification Assessments
Detailed reclaimed site assessments based on "Reclamation Criteria for Wellsites and Associated Facilities – 1995 update". Assessments conducted on approximately 1000 wellsites throughout Alberta. Consists of detailed soils, vegetation and landscape descriptions of reclaimed wellsites.

Facility Site Selection, Impact Assessment and Mitigation
Site selection, environmental impact assessment, environmental protection planning, mitigation design, and rehabilitation plans have been prepared for numerous oil and gas processing plants, urban and industrial facilities, sewage disposal systems, and open pit mines.
Monitoring systems have been designed, set up and operated to track the effects of acid farming emissions on soils around several gas plants.
Integrated assessments of soils, groundwater surface water, vegetation, and wildlife have been conducted on many of the projects.

Lake Diefenbaker Development Area (Saskatchewan)

• Geological and Groundwater Frameworks.
• Soil Mapping and Irrigation Capability Evaluation.
• Soil Salinity and Local Groundwater Investigations.
• Drainage Feasibility Investigations; Project and On-Farm Planning.
• Irrigation Management Extension Services and Project Planning with Water Users Associations.
• Soil-Crop-Water-Fertility Research.

• Five Major Projects, 1987 to 1989
• Riverhurst Irrigation Project 60,000 acres
• Grainland West Irrigation Project 30,000 acres
• Ridge Creek Irrigation Project 47,000 acres
• Elbow Irrigation Project 87,500 acres
• Coteau Bay Irrigation Project 108,000 acres
• Client: Saskatchewan Water Corporation
  

Southwestern Saskatchewan Small Basins Study

• Feasibility study of irrigation potential of 22 sites.
• Soils, geology, and groundwater overviews and soil salinity hazard assessment.
  Client: PFRA and Saskatchewan Water Corporation

Agricultural Development Projects

Hawk Hills, Slave Lake, and Sturgeon Land Development Feasibility Studies

• Inventory and capability rating of forest lands suitable for homestead development program.
  Client: Alberta Public Lands

Indian and Metis Land Development Planning

• Land inventory and capability ratings of a large number of Indian Reserves and Metis settlements in northern Alberta for development planning of communities and farm ventures.
  Client: Indian Affairs and several Bands.

Multiple Land Use/Capability Planning Studies

• Lake Management Plans for areas with agriculture, wildlife, recreation and country residential use conflicts (Sylvan L., Pine L., Wizard L., Skeleton L., Lac LaBiche, Wabamun L., Edm.-Devon RDA, Edm.-Ft. Sask. RDA).
  Client: Alberta Environment

Soil Conservation Projects

On-Farm Soil and Water Conservation Plans.

• Prepared conservation plans for 60 farms in the County of Vulcan, to deal with wind and water erosion, soil salinity, and water quality.

County Soil and Water Conservation

• Prepared a Municipal Conservation Planning manual for Alberta Agriculture, and assisted several municipalities in planning programs and targeting conservation funds.

Overview of Soil Degradation in Western Canada

• Prepared an overview of soil erosion, salinization, acidification and organic matter loss and effects on crop yields. This required estimates of extent and severity by census division for Agriculture Canada policy development.

Soil Salinity Manual for Western Canada

• Development of guidelines for investigation, control and reclamation of saline soils in a user manual format. Client: PFRA and Alberta Agriculture.

Major Land Reclamation Projects

Alberta Disaster Assistance – 1986 Flood, 1987 Flood, 1988 Flood

• Development of reclamation guidelines for silted and eroded farmlands in west central Alberta.
• Supervision of damage documentation and assistance payment program.
• Training program for assessors and agricultural fieldmen.
• On-farm advisory service.
  Client: Alberta Public Safety and Alberta Agriculture

Boundary Dam and Shand Coal Mines, Saskatchewan

• Soil classification and mapping and land use surveys of pre-mining agricultural land to establish agricultural capability and productivity.
• Identification of soil salvage and replacement procedures to return the land to pre-mining capability.
  Client: Luscar Ltd./M & S Coal Ltd.
  
  Note: Similar projects have been completed at 16 surface mines and at several hundred industrial and oil and gas facility sites across Western Canada for almost every major oil and gas and coal company.

Reclamation of Saline – Sodic Soils Research

• Research is continuing on the reclamation of salt-affected soils following pipeline construction on agricultural land.
• Soil quality parameters and crop yields are being correlated to alternative soil handling procedures during construction.
  Client: Nova Corporation of Alberta

Reclamation of Coal-Mined Land Demonstration

• Demonstration plots were built by various soils handling procedures at a surface coal mine site in southeastern Alberta.
• Forage and grain crops are grown annually to determine successful and sustainable soil reclamation and crop management procedures for plains coal mines.
  Client: Manalta Coal Ltd. and Luscar Ltd.

Major Wildlife Habitat Projects

Wildlife Habitat Inventory Framework for Alberta; for Alberta Fish and Wildlife (four projects 1984 to 1986)

• Developed guidelines and a provincial ecological zonation map for wildlife habitat inventory and evaluation.
• Completed a 1:10,000,000 scale habitat inventory map and relational database for Alberta.
• Developed guidelines and a habitat inventory of 3,000,000 acres at 1:250,000 scale of a mountain-foothills-plains pilot area.
• Prepared natural vegetation community type descriptions and successional pathways for all ecoregions in Alberta.

Forestry Projects in Canada

In all projects Pedocan was the prime contractor responsible for all phases of these projects. Our staff was often complemented by subcontracted outside consultants.

Manitoba Forest Site Classification and Mapping Pilot Study; for Canadian Forest Service and Manitoba Forestry Branch

• Development and testing of Site Classification and Ecological Land Mapping criteria and methods to apply to a provincial inventory.
• Development of land management and productivity interpretations.
• The program was very well received and Manitoba is planning to extrapolate the procedures to a provincial inventory as soon as possible.

Forest Soil Reclamation Standards for the Mountains and Foothills of Alberta; for the Government of Alberta and the Coal Association of Canada

• Identification of requirements of post-mining landscapes for various types of forestland.
• Review of international literature, local conditions and mining/reclamation practices and all relevant local forestry research.
• Intended to guide reclamation research and policy development.

Canstar Leases Ecological Inventory; for Canstar Oil Sands Ltd.

• Forest Sites Classification and detailed Ecological Mapping of 30,000 ha of forestland in northeastern Alberta’s oilsands region.
• Integrated inventory of rare plants, wildlife habitat, ungulates, furbearers, and small mammals.
• Land capability evaluation for Forestry, Agriculture, and Wildlife.
• Development and application of guidelines to rate forest ecosystem sensitivity to acidification by airborne emissions.

O’Chiese Forest Management Area, Hardwood Utilization Study; for Alberta Forest Service

• Check cruising of forest inventory and Fomes decay inventory in aspen and birch.
• Test pulping of various decay standard classes.
• Product utilization study of the hardwood resources.
• Evaluation of terrain constraints to harvesting throughout the FMA, and identification of erosion hazards.

Coal Valley Forest Ecosystem Inventory; for Luscar Ltd.

• Detailed baseline inventories of landforms, soils, forest ecosystems, and wildlife habitat of a coal lease area for reclamation planning and environmental impact assessment.
• Input to mine planning and environmental license applications.

Logging Area Haul Road Locations; for BCFP and for Western Lumber

• Terrain mapping and evaluation of soil erosion hazards for logging road location.

Forestry Projects in Developing Countries
(experience gained as outside consultants to the executing agency listed)

Integrated Intensive Forest Management project, Heilongjiang Province; (CIDA), (TM Thomson & Assoc.)

• Forest Research Centre development and management plan and equipment identification – Forest Site Classification and Land Mapping.
• Bareroot Tree Nursery soil management and demonstrations.
• Training of laboratory technicians; air photo interpretation training courses; and land mapping training of counterparts.

R. of S. Korea Gangweon Province Livestock Feasibility Project for Gangweon Province; (with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells)

• Land capability/suitability evaluation of livestock development in a forestland use area, forage and pasture development and management guidelines, and input to economic analysis.