CLRA National 2021 Linda Jones Memorial Award Recipient: Brandon Williams
Brandon Williams is a biologist and ecologist that completed his undergraduate degree in Alberta. He is now completing his graduate studies at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. His work examines the use of prescribed burning as a tool to shift an agronomic grass-dominated tailings storage facility located at Highland Valley Copper mine to a native grassland community. Outside of academia, he has experience in environmental consulting as a biologist. Brandon is committed to the reclamation and restoration of ecosystems to ensure the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services for future generations.
About the Linda Jones Memorial Award
Mine reclamation and closure plans have historically focused on returning disturbed lands to a vegetative community, often without consideration of the pre-existing natural vegetation, resulting in sites dominated by non-desirable plant species. Once established, these plant communities often dominate, restricting native species, and enter a stable state with little successional advancement. Regulatory standards, local community engagement, and mines operating on Indigenous territories have now shifted their closure objectives towards community-engaged closure which places more value on ecosystem function and native biodiversity. Large scale disturbances, notably fire, have historically structured grasslands both naturally and through Indigenous cultural use, and can alter the successional trajectory. We tested the effects of prescribed burning in a 24-year-old mine-reclaimed, closed tailings storage facility dominated by non-desirable C3 rhizomatous grassland species, as a means of shifting the plant community to native grassland. Our objectives were to test the effects of prescribed burning in the field and in a controlled greenhouse experiment to assess: a) plant biodiversity; b) soil nutrients; and c) native plant ecosystem reclamation. Fire severity was modified within the greenhouse trial at three levels (high, moderate, low) and held constant (moderate) in the field. Fire severity adjustments were made via modifying the fuel load and time of burning per treatment. Plant community composition shifted as a result of the burning treatment. Greater effects were found in the greenhouse trial, likely due to better control of the burn, such that native species colonization was observed. Our experiment provides a novel approach to mine reclamation.