Leading a real-world environmental applied research project is an opportunity few college students have come their way but when Vermilion Provincial Park officials needed some expert help for a grassland reclamation project, they turned to Lakeland College.

This summer, environmental sciences students and faculty in the conservation and restoration ecology (CARE) program will continue to monitor their work started last spring to restore a 5 acre brome alfalfa hay meadow within Vermilion Provincial Park boundaries to a native plant community. For a number of years, the land was leased by a cattle producer for hay production. No longer used for forage, it remained inhabited by several invasive plant varieties including smooth brome, an aggressive species that, once established, drastically alters the natural balance of a grassland ecosystem.

“Smooth brome certainly plays an important role in hay production, but it can be highly invasive in areas where it isn’t wanted,” says environmental sciences instructor Michael Crowe. “Populations of smooth brome can expand very rapidly, resulting in large monocultures with low species diversity. In the park, where we want to conserve intact native plant communities, it’s important that we find a way to limit its impact and allow for the recruitment of more desirable plants.”

In the project’s first phase which began last spring, students set up 24 trial plots, each sized five by five metres, to determine which of five different treatments would best control smooth brome. Treatments to be used included mulching, tilling, mowing, herbicide application, and prescribed fire and were applied from June to October. Each treatment was replicated four times randomly throughout the meadow. Help came from the Vermilion Fire Department which monitored the burn and the County of Vermilion River which assisted with the herbicide application

With one year’s worth of data and more monitoring to occur over the summer, Lakeland students will soon be able to make their recommendation to park officials for the best method of restoring the entire meadow back to a native plant community. In addition to the unique “live-the learning” opportunity that the project is giving to Lakeland College environmental sciences students, it is also enabling them to develop logistical planning skills as they work with external stakeholders and regulatory bodies.

“This experience will serve our students well in the long-term when they are working in the field,” says Crowe. “You just can’t teach these kinds of things in the lecture hall. It’s also very commendable on the part of Vermilion Provincial Park officials who are showing some very forward thinking with this project.”


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