field season would not have been successful without the work provided by my field assistants, and my field assistants, Maarten Dankers and Sarah Gardner, and Janet Main and Darlene Lavender who provided field season housing. Ranchers in my study area provided land management wisdom and access to their land, so thank you to Ed Nelson, Puff and Dan McKim, Francis Gardner, Mac Blades, Brent Barbero and Mac Main and others. Pipeline companies gave me access to their right-of-ways and their reclamation records: TransCanada, Shell Canada Limited and Hunt Oil Company, without which this research could not have been completed. v VI 1.0 Background and Introduction This report summarizes the master's degree project, "Restoration of rough fescue grassland on pipelines in southwestern Alberta", by Peggy Ann Desserud. The master's degree report addressed the question, "will rough fescue grassland recover following a major disturbance such as pipeline construction, particularly in the Foothills Fescue, Foothills Parkland or Montane natural subregions?" The objectives of the project were: To examine the development of plant communities following pipeline disturbance and assess if revegetation has resulted in the restoration of rough fescue plant communities. Re-establishing native plant communities can be difficult and there are few documented examples of successful restoration of rough fescue grassland following surface disturbances or invasion by non-native species (Tyser and Worley 1992, Moss and Packer 1994, and Willoughby and Alexander 2005). Revel (2004) and Petherbridge (2004) indicate some success in transplanted rough fescue grassland sod. Adams et al.(2004) demonstrated success in restoration of Mixed Grass grassland on small diameter pipelines using "no strip" construction. The long establishment time of native perennial grasses like Festuca campestris Rybd. (rough fescue), from three to five years, and the little understood ecology of associated forbs and grasses are some of the factors affecting the successful revegetation of disturbed native grasslands to their natural state (Jongman et al. 1987, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board 2004a, Cooper and Huffaker 1997, and Gitay and Wilson 1995).
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