The Artist Behind the CLRA 2022 IN-TECH Reclamation Award: Shannon Carla King

Shannon Carla King is a Canadian painter who, after 30 years in the energy industry is now a full-time artist focused on capturing the raw, natural beauty of reclamation, preservation, and conservation success stories in acrylic paintings.

Her mission is to ensure environmental projects have a voice by reaching new audiences to inform, connect and instill pride in the great work that is being done to protect and heal the earth. Art can help increase environmental literacy by educating audiences on the acts of care for the land. Shannon believes that through art, we can facilitate crucial conversations and critical thinking in a way that is balanced and based on data. Her goal is to help individuals and organizations share their commitment to responsible development and land use using landscape paintings as a driver for curiosity.

Each reclaimed site is an untold story that shows how Canadian reclamation, innovation, and consultation with Indigenous experts has evolved, advanced, and emerged as a world leader in caring for the land which we all benefit from.

The painting below was awarded to our 2022 IN-TECH Reclamation Award recipient Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG) at the CLRA National 2023 AGM that took place in Québec City as a part of the RE3 Conference on June 13, 2023.

The painting is a rendition of a drone photo showing a restored fen and a natural one in Reynolds (Julius), Manitoba, separated by a main or primary ditch. Co-ordinates of the site: N 49° 55'46.61”; W 96° 14'11.03". The restored site is divided into three main sectors, and it is surrounded by a shrubby and a graminoid natural fen. The site was restored by the joint collaboration of CSPMA and (PERG/GRET), thanks to Sun Gro’s restoration work.

Painting: Shannon Carla King (2023)

Drone photo: Aamir S. Khan (2022), PhD student supervised by Line Rochefort (U. Laval)

Regarding the restoration of South Julius peatland

The South Julius peatland is located in southeastern Manitoba, in a large peatland complex covering several thousand hectares, typically composed of graminoid fens and forested fens interspersed with Sphagnum peatland islands. In the northwestern half of the site, drainage ditches have been dug to allow machinery circulation and peat extraction. Peat extraction took place between 2004 and 2014. In that area, 5 cm of peat was removed, after which the fen peat layer was reached. In 2015, the site underwent a study to develop a restoration plan. Given that the residual peat layer was fen peat, and that the experimental area lies in an extremely rich fen, the restoration plan aimed to recreate a rich to extremely rich fen ecosystem. Initially, four peat fields (5 ha) were targeted for restoration actions. In September 2015, their surface was profiled. Crescent-shaped bunds and dams were built to block the drainage ditches and retain water on the site (rewetting action). In 2016, the final experimental design of a master’s thesis1 included five experimental sectors representing these conditions: 1) after peat extraction but without restoration actions (sector unrestored = control); 2) after peat extraction and one growing season after rewetting and profiling; 3) after peat extraction and one growing season after rewetting; 4) ten growing seasons after rewetting; and 5) of the typical regional fen ecosystem, as a reference ecosystem.

The top section of the drone photography and therefore the painting represents a part of the sector “2” rewetted and profiled, while the lower section represents the surrounding natural fen, both separated by a drainage channel.

The results of the master's project1 carried out in the field in 2016 and 2017 show that rewetting can be used effectively to restore fens after extraction, and that it can rapidly lead to CO2 exchanges typical of natural fens. However, water level management is essential to promote a vegetation structure similar to that found in natural fens.

1 For more information on the research project carried out at South Julius by PERG members, see Laurence Turmel-Courchesne's master's thesis, supervised by Line Rochefort (U. Laval) and Maria Strack (U. of Waterloo):

Turmel-Courchesne, L. (2019). Remouillage d’un grand fen continental après extraction de tourbe horticole : impacts sur les échanges de carbone et la végétation. M.Sc. thesis, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, 58 pp.

For more information about the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG; and in French Groupe de recherche en écologie des tourbières, GRET), see the website: www.gret-perg.ulaval.ca