Soil Stockpile Age Does Not Impact Vegetation Establishment in a Cold, Arid Natural Gas Field

Abstract

Abstract Land reclamation is critical to ensure surface disturbance associated with natural gas development is not permanent. Soil management is critical to reclamation success, especially in arid environments. Typically, natural gas well pad construction involves stripping topsoil to allow for equipment to be on level ground and placing it into a stockpile. After well pad construction, soil is respread and seeded to initiate interim reclamation. Previous research has shown that soil disturbance during natural gas well pad construction and subsequent reclamation in cold, arid environments is highest at the stripping and respreading phases, with minimal soil activity occurring during the stockpile phase. Other research has shown that additional soil disturbances after reclamation is initiated may exacerbate soil damage, limiting revegetation potential. Here, we examine soil stockpiles that are 1 to 7 years old in the Jonah Infill natural gas field for vegetation emergence and vegetation cover using an image analysis software called SamplePoint. In a 10-week greenhouse experiment, we found vegetation cover across stockpile age classes increased uniformly during the study period but that there was no significant difference in the rate of vegetation cover increase or percentage vegetation cover over time. These findings suggest it may be better to keep soil stockpiled in cold, arid natural gas fields when it is uncertain if additional construction activities will be required on a well pad location rather than respreading soil with a chance that redisturbance is necessary.