Jaron Wiigs

This was a land reclamation project at a mine site in Alberta. My role lasted 18 days straight, and I helped a team of tree planters plant about 300,000 trees on a hill of toxic overburden material that had been covered with 1.5 meters of reclamation stockpile soil.

I helped by driving something called an Argo, an ATV like machine invented in Canada. I used the Argo to create caches of trees, according to our company’s plans for which cells should be filled with what proportion of species. We used Avenza to plan cells, species placement, and cache locations. Avenza is another GIS software. The tree planters would use these caches to fill their respective cells with the proper species.

I learned alot during this project. Most of my knowledge gained was surrounding regulations of reclamation land in Canada and alberta. I also learned what types of trees and bushes grow in Northern alberta. In terms of soil,  I learned the importance of mineral Vs. organic content, as this hill was largely covered with very dry mineral soil, with cells of peat in certain areas. When it would rain, I had to be careful driving near those intersection points as the difference in drainage would cause water to collect along the boundaries between the two soils. Overall, my first project at Montrose was difficult but rewarding.