Environmental Conservation and Reclamation Major

Learn:

You will learn how to reclaim disturbed lands and to minimize impact of industrial activities including oil and gas, mining and forestry. You will be able to perform detailed site assessments on cultivated soils, native grasslands and forests applying reclamation regulations, guidelines and techniques. Emphasis on the ecology of ecosystems and knowledge of how to classify, manage, conserve and inventory soils will provide you with employable skills.
“The Environmental Conservation and Reclamation Program provided me with the necessary skills and knowledge to find a job doing what I really love. This program gave me the confidence that I needed to be successful in this very competitive field. “
Charity Martin, Grad 2006 Read more testimonials
Watch a brief video about the program

Live The Learning:

You will spend considerable time in field labs performing hands-on activities that develop skill sets required for the reclamation field. Field trips also provide opportunity to interact with government and industry thanks to partnerships that foster student learning.

View the photo gallery of typical field labs and activities our students participate in and experience past field tours from industry partners such as Public Lands and The Canadian Land Reclamation Association.

Employable skills you will learn include:

Identification of common native and introduced plant species within local plant communities.
Classification, inventory, management and conservation of soils.
Practical training using specialized reclamation field and lab equipment.
Conducting Phase 1 and 2 site assessments for upstream oil and gas, commercial and industrial settings.
Application of practical and specialized revegetation technologies
Perform pre-disturbance planning to identify end land use goals
Execution of appropriate site assessment techniques prior to revegetating a disturbed site
Identification of environmental regulations pertinent to revegetation activities
Perform common reclamation field methods related to wellsite reclamation, pipeline construction, mining and logging operations.
Managing drilling operations based on regulations and best practices
See all areas of the applied skill sets

The Lakeland Advantage:

"The instructors were amazing! All of them had an open-door policy and were always there when I needed help with school, or advice. After graduating, I felt confident to go and work in industry. In school I received field experience from labs which were very beneficial. The wide range of classes that I took prepared me for the many different situations that I would face in the real world.’
Lindsay Larre, Grad 2006 Read more testimonials

Working field trips to oil and gas facilities, pipelines, forested lands and mines to see current industry practices and technologies and to observe reclaimed wellsites, pipelines and other disturbed areas.
Hands on field labs in agricultural lands, grasslands, forests, and water bodies to develop applied skill sets relevant to disturbed settings.
Canadian Land Reclamation Association and other industrial partners provides an opportunity to interact with industry and learn about current reclamation technologies and regulations.

Live Your Career As A

Being an environmental professional provides a variety of career choices. You will often work in a team as a field technologist involved in activities ranging through soil and plant sampling, supervising or actively reclaiming and revegetating sites, conducting site inspections and site assessments, sampling of drilling fluid from rigs, and writing reports.

Graduates find employment with environmental agencies and consultants in the oil and gas sector, mining, agriculture, and forestry sectors, as well as government. Flexibility in this career allows graduates to work for themselves or for a corporation.

Careers include:

environmental consultant
reclamation field supervisor
environmental technician
drilling waste consultant
soil technician

Salary potential: The Alberta Wage and Salary Survey discovered that the environmental industry related jobs are paying between $44,800 and $136,000 per year with an average salary of $87,600.

Other opportunities: Graduates of this program qualify for membership in the Alberta Institute of Agrologists and are eligible to article as a Registered Technologists in Agrology (RT (Ag).

Continue Your Learning With:

After graduating, you receive direct entry into Lakeland College’s Bachelor of Applied Science: Environmental Management program in the Reclamation and Remediation Major.

Or, you can transfer to a university. Transfer agreements are in place for the following institutions:

The University of Alberta in the Environmental Sciences with a major in Land Reclamation or Conservation Biology
The University of Saskatchewan in Environmental Science or Soil Science
The University of Lethbridge in Environmental Sciences
Athabasca University--Environmental Studies
Royal Roads University--Environment and Sustainability

Last updated on

Campus Location
Vermilion Campus

Program Length
2 Years

Current Project

Featured WADE Canada project

Lakeland College's renewable energy applied research is currently a feature project of WADE Canada. WADE is the World Alliance for Dencentralized Energy. Our energy cabin demo site and the renewable energy conservation program are two of the main features of Lakeland's work to date. Plans are to do more. Lakeland is hoping to do a lot more through proposed NSERC College and Community Innovation Program funding.