File photo (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Aaron Schulze

Ecosystem Reclamation

Teck Highland Valley Copper donates $575,000 to TRU’s research on ecosystem reclamation

Jan 25, 2024 | 10:35 AM

KAMLOOPS — An environment researcher at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) received a substantial funding boost for his work into ecosystem reclamation.

In a news release issued Thursday (Jan. 25) morning, TRU announced Teck Highland Valley Copper mine near Logan Lake is donating $575,000 to support the research on ecosystem reclamation that’s headed by Lauchlan Fraser.

Fraser is an industrial research chair on the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and an expert in grassland and wetland ecology. His research focuses on understanding B.C. Interior ecosystems so they can be quickly restored after natural environmental disturbances and resource extraction.

“We’ve shown through the reclamation that has been done at HVC over the past 20 years that the microbial communities are progressively returning to the reference sites, the undisturbed areas. So we are already seeing positive results in terms of reclamation success,” said Dr. Fraser.

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Public safety is the Number One issue

1h ago

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Pain Body

20h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Celebrating Child Care Month

21h ago

“This work very much supports our ultimate goal of ensuring we can successfully return these lands once the mining operation is complete and it’s through utilizing industry leading ecosystem reclamation practices that we will be able to do that,” added Carly Bielecki, Manager of Community and Indigenous Affairs with Teck Resources.

TRU says Fraser and his team of researchers from the university’s Centre for Ecosystem Reclamation is a leader in restoration management that is informing industry strategies for planning, implementing and managing ecosystem reclamation projects.

“This investment allows TRU to be at the forefront in the development of tools to help solve environmental disturbances — solutions that are more pressing than ever in the face of climate change,” Fraser says. “A new sense of urgency is pushing us into new areas of research to increase the speed with which we can restore disturbed landscapes.”

“We need to build resilient communities that can withstand drought. So we are thinking about biodiversity, and we are thinking about how we can progressively build our communities not only to make them more resilient but it also increases the speed in which they recover,” said Dr. Fraser.

TRU says Highland Valley Copper was a key funding partner in creating the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in ecosystem reclamation at the university in 2018.