#815: Sandhill Fen Update
The Sandhill Fen is an oil sands research project that’s already showing positive results.
As Syncrude ecologist Carla Wytrykush explains, the fen is a created watershed on 57 hectares of a former oil sands pit.
CARLA WYTRYKUSH: We finished constructing and planting all the trees in 2012, and since then everything has really taken off. The hills are filled a huge diversity of different trees, spruce, jack pine, aspen. Those are the things we’ve planted. But there’s lots of other things coming in on their own. Blueberries, saskatoons, pincherries. The pincherry trees are so tall, they’re taller than I am. And they’re so full of berries that they’re falling over. And then the wetland is a flat area in the centre and it’s filled with a huge variety of wetland plants. Some of the areas that are wetter have cattails and then the moister areas have all kinds of typical fen plants – sedges and mosses – and the whole facility is filled with all kinds of birds and bees and frogs. And it’s really lovely.
Carla Wytrykush says the Sandhill Fen is the site of many university research programs.
Thanks today to Syncrude.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2016-10-18