In 2017, a team of ConocoPhillips Canada employees at a remote work camp in northeastern Alberta asked themselves how they could reduce their personal impact on the environment. Fast forward five years and the employee-run Operations Waste and Liability Strategy (OWLS) Committee has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

Ecologist Simon Landhäusser has spent his career exploring difficult questions on how forests recover naturally from disturbance and how to best reclaim land that’s been disturbed by human activity.

After spending a few minutes talking with Ashlee Mombourquette, you may end up convinced that a day conducting sampling in a remote wetland in the oil sands could be the highlight of your summer. 

Every year, Syncrude reclaims many hectares of land previously used to support its mining operations. So much so, that more than 4,700 hundred hectares have now been returned back to a productive state.

Since the program began in 2011, 149 species have been detected on Syncrude’s reclaimed areas, including 31 species of concern. 

The beauty of Sandhill Fen is more than skin deep. It goes deeper than the beauty of the plants and animals that thrive in its carefully designed wetland valleys and forested hills.

Lindsay Clothier shares her research journey and how she has helped advance environmental knowledge in the oil sands across a number of different areas. 

Wetlands are one of the world's most important ecosystems because they limit the impact of climate change!