The Saskatchewan boom

Jan 07, 2008

Talk about a mixed blessing.  Record oil prices could bring an oil sands boom to Saskatchewan to rival neighbour Alberta's.  It's great for the economy, but not so hot for wildlife.  Oil sands development has a big footprint on the Boreal Forest and its ability to counteract climate change.

CPAWS' Colleen Rickard expressed her concerns to the Edmonton Journal:

"You're going to be impacting huge areas," said Rickard.

It begins in the exploration stage with large amounts of drilling and seismic activity, along with the infrastructure that entails, she said.

"Then they build the well-pad sites, which is the point at which those horizontal wells are actually set into the ground and then down into the formation. And every one of those well-pad sites clears an area of the forest," she said.

"Once they pull the bitumen out of the ground, they need other pipes. So there's lots of things on the surface all over the place covering a huge area."

That has a huge effect on wildlife such as woodland caribou and bird species, said Rickard.

Will Saskatchewan learn from Alberta's example, and balance short-term economic growth with the long-term protection of the Boreal?  Land use plans for the province's Boreal are inadequate to deal with the coming boom, so there's reason to doubt it.  CPAWS Saskatchewan is on the case, though, so check back for updates.

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