Alberta Highway Planting Trial (2016-2021)
This report covers activities related to the soil assessment and tree monitoring conducted across two Alberta Highway Planting Trial sites by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) between August 2016 and August 2021. While the original trial included three testing sites, Calgary, Airdrie and Edmonton, this report covers the results of two sites with pre-restoration soil conditions more typical of urban and/or roadside conditions, Calgary and Airdrie respectively. Findings from Edmonton (2016 to 2019) were presented in the previous Greening Canada’s Highways Report (p. 50-59), the summary results of which can be found in Appendix A. Vineland identified, collected and analyzed soil samples, prepared maps and corresponding soil health reports as well as designed and conducted follow up monitoring on the 96 trial trees located across the Airdrie and Calgary trial sites.
The Alberta Highway Planting Trial was designed to compare tree establishment and survival between the standard planting specification implemented by the Cities of Airdrie and Calgary and soil restoration treatments outlined by Vineland for highway roadside plantings. The trial consists of (i) pulp & paper residual and (ii) compost amendment treatments, (iii) a mechanical decompaction treatment and (iv) a standard planting practice ‘control’ treatment. All restoration treatments (decompaction, pulp and paper and compost amended beds) were implemented at both trial sites prior to planting in Spring 2016.
Full report can be downloaded HERE
Watch the accompanying webinar that summarizes the report: