2025 CLRA Alberta & National Conference Presentations & Proceedings

We are proud of our 2025 conference program in Edmonton and encourage you to check out the conference presentations and proceedings. 

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Pre-Conference Workshop Summary ‘Bridging Knowledge: Collaborative Community Involvement for Shared Understanding’

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Exhibition Hall

• 9:00 AM, CLRA Stewardship Present: Drivers for Change – Past and Future

Concurrent Sessions – 10:30 am

• Merging Traditional Ecological Values with Satellite Based Site Regeneration Monitoring
• In situ Remediation of Salt-impacted Root Zone Soil Using Chemical Amendments and Irrigation in the Canadian Prairies, Waduwawatte Bodhinayake
• PTAC/COSIA Collaborative Reclamation and Restoration, Allan Fogwill & Jack O’Neill
• Boreal peatland restoration on in-situ well pads is highly feasible: a synthesis of learnings and call for action, Dr. Bin Xu

Concurrent Sessions – 11:00 am

• Peatland Inversion Project near Hinton, AB: Tackling Key Insights, Robyn Sayer & Stacey Ingram
• Complications with Chloride Delineation and the Influence of Non-Oil-and-Gas Sources, Jonathan Donahue
• Reclaiming Efficiency: How AI is Enabling Practitioners to Focus on Science, Ryan Tulloch

Concurrent Sessions – 11:30 am

• Conventional vs. passive management of noxious weeds for final reclamation of industrial sites in the Boreal: A risk management-based approach, Dr. Amanda Schoonmaker

• Quantitative assessment of the Legacy well site restoration outcomes in an operating forest management area in NW Alberta, Dr. Andres Rolhauser

• Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC)’s Overview and Environmental Updates, Jilczy Nelson

• High Potential-Risk Subsoil Salinity Tool (SST) Scenarios Where More Stringent Chloride Delineation Criteria Are Required, Greg Huber

• The Pros & Cons of Soil Sampling Systems in Western Canada, Josh Ernst

Concurrent Sessions – 2:30 pm

• Fifty Years of Roadway Watercourse Crossing Management in Alberta, From Historical Practice, Hard Lessons, and a New Beginning, Bruce Nielsen

• Utility and Practical Uses of Drones by Field Consultants, Elizabeth Russell

• Long Term Recovery Of Reclaimed Dry Mixed Grass Prairie Well Sites In Southern Alberta, Amalesh Dhar

• Innovative Site Closure Approaches for Impacted Bedrock in Alberta, Brent Lennox

• Whitewood – The end of a mine and the start of a new era, Rick Wallace

Concurrent Sessions – 3:00 pm

• Current Status of Space-based Earth Observation Technology for Soils, Vegetation, and Reclamation Assessments, Dr. Eduardo Loos

• Transforming Plume Predictions: The Role of AI in Managing Groundwater Risk and Liability, Steven Mamet

• Testing Native Grassland Revegetation Strategies on Pipeline Integrity Disturbances within the Dry Mixed grass, Steven Tannas & Dustin Theberge

• Answering the Challenges of Low Permeability Formations, Gord Guest

• Reclamation in the Aggregate Industry: Opportunities, Challenges, and Best Practices, Ebberly Bandara & Lesley Foy

Concurrent Sessions – 3:30 pm

• Making the Case for Performing Vegetation Assessments on Cultivated Sites Using Remote Sensing Technology, George Gaeke

• Wetland Restoration & Remediation of a Historic Landfill on Reserve in Central Alberta, Michelle Cotton & Shaleigh Raine

• Utilization of Biogenic Hydrocarbon Assessments to Determine Extent of Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contamination, Brody Andersen

• Wetland Reclamation: Insights from Heidelberg Materials’ Oregon Project, Lauren Greenhough & Courtney DePorto

• Harnessing Technology and Collaboration for Risk Mitigation and Restoration in Edmonton’s Urban Parks: A Focus on Encampment, Travis Kennedy & Shannon Breen

Concurrent Sessions – 4:00 pm

• Unlocking Genomics Research for Optimization of Constructed Treatment Wetlands for Water Remediation (GROW) through Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration, Amy-lynne Balaberda
• Revolutionizing Soil Analysis: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Site Characterization Technology,  Jevins Waddell
• Revegetating challenging soils in the varied sites necessary to build the future!, Alex Zimmerman
• Evolution of the Site Remediation Industry in Canada: From Dig and Dump to Artificial Intelligence, Kevin French
• The Changing Landscape of Aggregate Reclamation, Bill Gowdy

• 4:00 – 4:30 PM, Feedstock type and pyrolysis temperature drive properties of activated and non-activated biochars, Christopher Nzediegwu

Event Events

• Awards Presentations
• Tribute to Fred Keating

Friday, March 7, 2025

Exhibition Hall

• 8:00 am, Closing the gap between land reclamation and lifestyle – exploring the societal changes that have increased the need for land reclamation since 1975, Tanya Richens

• 8:30 am, Ecological Restoration in Degraded Eastern Canada Sites Using Four Early-Successional Species Using a Factorial of Site-Preparation Treatments: Mortality, Growth and Elevated CO2 Treatments., John Major
• 9:00 am, Regulatory Updates on Renewable Energy Operations and Reclamation Pilots for Well Sites, Susan McGillivray

Concurrent Sessions – 10:00 am

• Growing Beyond Constraints: Soil Bioengineering with Tall Rooted Live Stakes (TRS) for Complex Ecological & Construction Timelines, James Proudfoot

• Beetle Mania! Coming To A Reclamation Site Near You, Stephanie Ibsen

• Contaminated Site Management in Remote Northern Alberta in the Midst of Repeated Fire and Flood Cycles, Stephanie Comparelli

• Recent Improvements in Passive In-Situ Treatment Barriers for ML/ARD Sites, Kevin French

• Using mechanical tools to kickstart forest development on legacy industrial sites, Dr. Amanda Schoonmaker

Concurrent Sessions – 10:30 am

• Wildflower production for large-scale restoration and reclamation projects., John Skinner

• Evolution of Forested Reclamation on Upstream Sites, Danielle Secretan & Stacey Ingram

• Partners in Research: An Indigenous Perspective, Kevin Kemball

• Sustainable Remediation: At the Intersection of Current and Future Regulations, Nathan Lichti

• Application of remediation technologies for bromacil impacted sites in Alberta, Victor Bachmann

Concurrent Sessions – 11:00 am

• Multi-Species Propagation: Hitchhiking Shrubs and Forbs with Deciduous and Coniferous Tree Species in Reclaimed Industrial Sites, Jess Rodgers

• Impacts of Wildfire on Reclaimed Forested Sites, Sahra Deagle

• Tetraethyl Lead in Soils and Waters and TEL Sampling Artifacts from Entrained Solids in Groundwater, Dwayne Bennett

• Accelerating Anaerobic BTEX Degradation – Lessons from the field., Corey Scales

• Optimizing Reclamation with UAVs and AI: Precision Tree Detection and Vegetation Analysis, Charumitha Selvaraj

Concurrent Sessions – 11:30 am

• Context is the Key to Understanding History: Some Alberta Examples, Chris Powter

• Effective Remediation Of Hydrocarbons From Ground Water Using Canola Straw, Biochar Abhijeet Pathy

• Long-term lichen enhancement for woodland caribou habitat restoration: insights from a 24-year trial, Duoduo Wang & Michael Schulz

• Practical Remediation Closure Solutions for Remote Sites in Northern British Columbia, Lucas Hewitt & Nicole Prince

• Case Study: World’s First Injected In-Situ Treatment Barrier for a PFAS Plume Using a Modified Clay Amendment, Nathan Lichti

Exhibition Hall

• 1:00 PM, A Conversation With Our Land Keepers 

• 2:00 PM, Reclaiming the Touquoy Gold Mine near Halifax, Nova Scotia,  Christian Deveau