Renowned TRU researcher receives $2.5M grant

On Wednesday, Dr. Fraser was formally awarded with a $2.5 million grant, among the biggest in TRU’s history, allowing him and his students to expand on work they’ve already been doing. It includes partnerships with New Gold and Highland Valley Copper.

“We’ve already established plots at both mine sites,” he said. “Highland Valley Copper has been around for decades, so there is a good history of restoration sites that we can rely on to help our understanding of how these sites can recover.”

Dr. Fraser and his team have also focused some of their work on the Mount Polley mine following the tailings breach in 2014.

“Genome BC had supported a project to look at the impacts of the breach at Mount Polley, so we have done some of that work,” noted Dr. Fraser. “We focused on the microbiota and look at the area immediately around the plume of the breach, but we also measured areas down Hazeltine Creek and along the shores of Quesnel Lake.”

Geoscience BC is among the many partnership contributing to the $2.5 million grant. The non-profit says these research projects are very relevant.

“We are providing significant funding ($100,000) and we’re happy to do more,” said Geoscience BC President and CEO Gavin Dirom. “We actually have two projects that we’re directly funding. One is soil amendments, understanding what kind of compost could be added. For instance, wood chips could be added to the soil pile that over time will make it more useful to reclaim the mine site. We’re also look at the biodiversity.”

With wildfires also top of mind throughout the province, Dr. Fraser is also interested in researching reclamation for fire-ravaged land.

He says the current fuel management practices of slash burning essentially kills the soil. Dr. Fraser says the smoke could assist in the resurrgence of nutrients in soils.

“We’ve looked at how smoke may actually increase the rate of germination of seeds,” he said. “We can potentially use this as a mechanism to enhance restoration success of plant seeds by essentially pre-treating them with smoke.”

The grant will last Dr. Fraser for five years.

by Greg Fry/Chad Klassen

Renowned TRU researcher receives $2.5M grant

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