Environmental Sciences: Conservation and Reclamation Major

When a wellsite or mine closes, someone has to rebuild the soil, bring back the vegetation and prove the land is healthy again. Lakeland’s Environmental Sciences: Conservation and Reclamation Major trains you to be that person. It is a two-year diploma delivered face to face at Lakeland’s Vermilion campus.

After a first year of ecology, soil classification, GPS and GIS and forestry shared with other Environmental Sciences majors, the Conservation and Reclamation year turns to disturbed land. You learn to classify, manage and conserve soils, recognise different kinds of land disturbance, and identify oil and gas facilities on the ground. You then carry out Phase I and II site assessments, apply wellsite reclamation criteria and other reclamation regulations and guidelines, and plan soil handling and placement, revegetation, risk assessment and site closure.

Conservation and Reclamation field labs take place on forested, mined and cultivated lands, reclaimed sites and natural areas, where you see current industry practice at work. Past trips have included a reclamation tour of the TransAlta Highvale coal mine, and each September Field Week takes classes to Vermilion Provincial Park, the Rockies and Prairie grasslands. Students earn field tickets such as ground disturbance, spill response, H2S Alive and First Aid, and may add an optional practicum between years. Graduates can apply as an Environmental Professional in Training through ECO Canada and for Level III Alberta Water and Wastewater Operator Certification, enter Lakeland’s Bachelor of Applied Science: Environmental Management directly, or transfer to partner universities such as the University of Alberta and University of Saskatchewan.

Reclamation graduates work as environmental technicians, reclamation field supervisors, soil technicians, drilling waste consultants and environmental consultants for oil and gas, mining, forestry and agriculture companies and government agencies. The major suits people who like long field days, soil pits and seeing a damaged site returned to productive land.