Christina Lake Regional Project

About the Program
MEG Energy Corporation Christina Lake Regional Project (CLRP) is a multi-phased oil development project on about 77 square miles and is located 93 miles south of Fort McMurray in northeast Alberta, Canada. The historical habitat is classified as Forest - Dillon River Conservation Area Caribou Restoration. Through Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA), it is required to provide the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with a Caribou Monitoring and Mitigation Plan (CMMP). In the plan, MEG committed to restoring caribou habitat in and around their lease boundaries. Caribou conservation objectives help reduce the effects of existing industrial disturbance on caribou habitat through access controls and establish vegetation on previously disturbed sites. A new green infrastructure project aims to test the use of biochar as an amendment to topsoil for enhancing reclamation outcomes. The team also aims to enhance existing habitat for native bat species.

Practices and Impacts

• The project team is a member of the Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration group working to improve habitat for caribou. MEG has been working since 2013 to restore the historical seismic lines voluntarily to reduce fragmentation of the forest and impede wolf sight lines and travel corridors to reduce opportunities for preying on caribou. 
• In partnership with Matrix Solutions, wildlife monitoring is conducted through camera traps. Monitoring is based on a before-after-control-impact design. Linear features are monitored using remote cameras before and after implementation of habitat treatments, along with control sites. Over 800 woodland caribou were detected from September 2020 to September 2021.
• Vegetation monitoring through plot sampling is conducted per the Provincial Restoration and Establishment Framework for Legacy Seismic Lines in Alberta.
• In 2016, the team installed two bat boxes on site and added an additional two boxes in 2019. Monitoring has shown that two of the boxes are being utilized. The team plans to relocate the other two to hopefully recruit bats. In 2019, in partnership with Matrix Solutions, MEG initiated a monitoring program via acoustic recording units. These units were dispersed throughout the site and beyond in order to use the recordings to detect multiple species of wildlife, including bats. 
• MEG has partnered with Saskatchewan Polytechnic to determine how biochar can affect the physical and chemical properties of topsoil and whether biochar can improve forest regeneration in the short and long term. In 2022, a three-year trial study was initiated on site. The long-term intent of the study is to publish and share the results with other industry members with the goal of improving reclamation practices, leading to enhanced biodiversity within the province of Alberta.