COSIA member companies are working hard to protect caribou in northern Alberta by helping restore their habitat. Much of their habitat is muskeg, a swamp-like environment that’s wet, peaty and difficult to reach. This can create huge challenges in restoring land near oil sands operations, because the heavy machinery used for restoration can get stuck in the boggy terrain.

Cenovus led a novel COSIA project in 2015 – the first of its kind in the in-situ oil sands – to test the use of amphibious vehicles – machines that can drive on land and float on water. Would they allow Cenovus to do reforestation work in months when the ground was not frozen?

Find out how this innovation became a game-changer for the industry. Cenovus now regularly deploys amphibious vehicles in the field outside of winter months. And because this was a COSIA project, other COSIA members can leverage results of this innovation too.

Interested in stories like these? See other examples of innovation by COSIA members.
•    First Four Years of a Young Boreal Forest 
•    Special Recipe Creates Topsoil in Just Five Years 
•    Compensation Lakes Give Fish a New Home 

If you’d like to find out more about other innovative technologies for land management developed through COSIA? Check out some other projects. 

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For innovators:

Are you an innovator with a potential solution for our Land innovation opportunity? Find out more and contact us if you have any questions.

Check out the summaries of other research underway, see our two Land Research Reports for Mining and In Situ.
 

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