Land
At our Groundbirch asset, we continually consider the amount of land we use, including the protection of livestock and wildlife and their critical habitats, to ensure we make responsible decisions that reduce our impact as much as possible. Before we break ground on any new project, we have a plan in place for how to return the land back to its previous state.
Reducing our impact
From the start of our planning process, we design our operations and associated infrastructure to both maximize efficiency and keep habitat disturbance to a minimum.
- We plan activities to avoid wildlife migratory seasons, conduct wildlife assessments, create wildlife crossings, manage dust control and use strict speed limits on local roads all help to reduce our impact on wildlife and livestock.
- Archeological assessments are conducted to avoid unintentionally impacting culturally and historically important areas.
- Since 2015, we have completed interim reclamation on more than 45 sites. This means we re-establish some of the land around a well pad during the years it is producing. This reduces the amount of surface land disturbance and minimizes soil erosion.
- We complete final reclamation once a pad stops producing which includes safely capping the well, removing all the surface infrastructure and recontouring the land back to its original state.
Improvements and updates
- During both interim and final reclamation, we use salvaged soil from the original landscape to re-form the land and we re-introduce original vegetation to promote natural biodiversity.
- Our partnership with the Twin Sisters Native Plant Nursery, a local Indigenous-owned business, allows us to reclaim natural landscapes using both local traditional knowledge and native plant species while helping to employ community members.