Monitoring for Reclamation Sites

In the late summer of 2012, CSR began monitoring over 100 new reclamation sites in the Uintah Basin. The collected data, both qualitative and quantitative, informs the reclamation process for the oil and gas industry.

qualitative measures: permanent photo points, site ecology, site contouring, seral stage, undesirable species occurrence, and erosion features.

quantitative measures: basal cover, shrub and forb density, functional group & species composition, surface disturbance area.

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High Altitude Botany

Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) and Seacliff buckwheat (Eriogonum parvifolium)

Shrubby penstemon (Penstemon fruticosus)

CSR’s Natural Resources Department was recently in the Boise National Forest, botanizing plants and enjoying the view.

Ruby Pipeline Right of Way Restoration: Little Bear River, Lime Kiln Drainage

Two separate revegetation plans were completed fall 2011 as an addition to the large-scale Ruby Pipeline Right of Way Restoration. The East Fork of the Little Bear River Wildlife Management Area, located approximately 2 miles east of Avon, UT, was comprised of three different vegetation types: riparian/wetland shrub, meadow, and woodland.

The riparian/wetland area was planted with appropriate native species: willow, woods rose, red osier dogwood, golden currant, cottonwoods. This area was then seeded with a native seed mix comprised of sedges, rushes and native grasses. The meadow area,  approximately 7 acres, was drill-seeded with native seed. The Woodland area was planted with 435 native plants and then drill-seeded.

Another additional contract was the Lime Kiln Drainage located just east of the Bear River Restoration project. This drainage was a steep, narrow, and very rocky area that has a natural spring surfacing that could cause erosion issues along the pipeline. Native shrubs were installed with the goal that planting woody vegetation would dissipate surface water velocities and decrease flow volume further down the drainage. Native plant species on the Lime Kiln revegetation plan included willow species (peachleaf, yellow, booth and sandbar species), four-line honeysuckle, and woods rose.

UW Graduate Students Work with British Petroleum to ID Effective Reclamation Practices

Originally published on the University of Wyoming website, July 14, 2011:

Two graduate students at the University of Wyoming will compile then sift through a database from British Petroleum of more than 1,000 gas well pads to glean the best restoration and reclamation practices in Wyoming’s natural gas fields.

Renewable resources students Benjamin Wolff and Michael Curran, working with the Wyoming Restoration and Reclamation Center (WRRC) and BP, are collaborating with Conservation Seeding and Restoration (CSR), a reclamation contractor for BP, to identify effective and timely reclamation practices.

Both BP and WRRC are funding the project, said Pete Stahl, director of the WRRC, which is in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“BP is contributing its large reclamation database developed over the past seven years working in Wyoming gasfields with an estimated value of $1.2 million,” he said. BP is paying the salaries of two CSR employees to work on the project, and the WRRC is paying for the students’ graduate assistantships and travel costs.

CSR is based in Kimberly, Idaho, with a field office in Rock Springs.

Gary Austin, BP America’s regional regulatory adviser, and CSR restoration ecologist Steve Paulson, who have worked together on gasfield reclamation in western Wyoming for several years, initiated the project. They met with Steve Williams, a professor in the Department of Renewable Resources, who works with the WRRC, and Stahl, Wolff and Curran.

“I think they could see how much benefit could come from this kind of research – advancing the state of land reclamation in the cold, high deserts of Wyoming, not only for BP and CSR, who will certainly benefit, but for the whole industry and state of Wyoming,” said Wolff of Laramie, who took on the project for his thesis.

“We all have very strong interests in reclamation and also in improving our ability to accomplish good land reclamation in the challenging environments we have in Wyoming,” said Wolff.

Working out the details took time but, “All agreed the research and potential benefits are too important to let details get in the way,” he said.

The database could help identify trends that lead to successful reclamation of sites disturbed by oil and gas drilling, said Curran of Manasquan, N.J., who will also develop his thesis from the project.

“If we can pinpoint and understand these trends leading to successful reclamation, that knowledge is going to play a huge role in implementing successful practices on future reclamation projects,” he said.

Organizing the database is the first phase. The database will incorporate more than 1,000 BP well pads undergoing reclamation. Later this summer, general reclamation trends will be isolated and techniques for further examination identified.

The infusion of Geographic Information System information will boost the database horsepower.

“Without the geospatial component, essentially all we have is a database that can perform limited operations,” said Wolff. “The geospatial component allows us to take the analysis several steps further by integrating space and time with data transformation to produce complex models and thematic maps. This allows us to better understand reclamation by isolating gaps in knowledge and identifying reclamation trends.”

The results could have wide-ranging effects.

“Not only is this research going to be helpful to BP and CSR,” said Curran, “but it will be a valuable tool for all of those involved with land reclamation associated with oil and gas extraction in the Rocky Mountain region.”

Results and any recommendations coming out of the study, including best management practices, will be made publicly available, said Stahl.

SWPPP – Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans

CSR’s Natural Resources Department was in southern Wyoming recently, surveying well sites for SWPPP.

Desertification, the loss of topsoil to wind and water erosion, is a persistent concern in arid ecosystems. Managing erosion is a standard component of comprehensive restoration plans. This management takes the form of Storm Water Pollution Prevention (SWPPP) plans. SWPP plans encompass elements directly tied to soil preparation, seeding and erosion control. Effective strategies for controlling erosion include:

• Best Management Practices (BMP’s), including silt fencing, straw waddles & erosion control fabric. Straw crimping traps and retains moisture, adds organic material to the soil and slows erosion.

• Planting cover crops, such as sterile annual triticales, which can quickly add structural stability to the restoration project.

• Applying polymers and tackifiers retains soil and seeds as well adding to the soils ability to absorb moisture.