Tim Robinson
A University of Wyoming alumnus and a UW professor of statistics have published a
study proposing the use of spatially balanced rotating panel designs as a time and
cost-efficient way to monitor the ecological reclamation of oil and natural gas sites
while increasing data quality.
The paper, “Long-term monitoring strategies for ecological reclamation programmes
using spatially balanced rotating panel designs,” was published in the tier 1 journal
Ecological Solutions and Evidence. It is the ninth time UW graduate Michael Curran,
CEO and principal ecologist of Abnova Ecological Solutions, and Tim Robinson, a professor
of statistics at UW, have published a paper together.
Curran graduated from UW with a graduate minor in statistics and a doctorate in ecology
in 2020. He has been working to improve reclamation and its monitoring and reporting
practices since his time at the university, where he examined methods at well pad
and right-of-way locations.
Curran is originally from New Jersey, says Robinson, adding it’s been fun to see someone
from out of state attend UW for a graduate education and then use that expertise to
launch a Wyoming-based business.
“Mike’s story exemplifies the land-grant mission of UW; he received high-quality education
from UW,” Robinson says. “He continually engages companies doing business in Wyoming
and advances economic growth through his business, Abnova.”
The article was a collaborative effort among Abnova, PureWest, UW and the University
of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, one of the country’s premier universities.
During the research, spatially balanced rotating panel designs were used to monitor
the Pinedale Anticline natural gas field in Sublette County, which spans over 200,000
acres with 303 well pads, as well as a 13-mile-long right-of-way system, beginning
in 2022. Monitoring will conclude in 2027.
Alongside Curran and Robinson, four other co-authors contributed to the article: Blair
Robertson, a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University
of Canterbury and a former adjunct professor at UW; Jasmine Allison, director of government
and regulatory affairs at PureWest Energy; Bobby Saleh, geographic information system
manager at PureWest Energy; and Steven Bower, chief administrative officer at Abnova.
Ecological reclamation is essential to prevent permanent disturbance in ecosystems.
In North America, it’s required to monitor the ecological reclamation efforts of sites
connected to oil and natural gas development. According to the paper, a variety of
reclamation methods and management practices are used, depending on surface disturbance
and environmental factors, with soil management and the installation of plant material
being common.
Oil and natural gas companies put a lot of effort into determining the right types
of vegetation for reclamation.
“You have got to think about what’s important for native Wyoming wildlife, including
big game, sage grouse, pollinators, plant communities, etc.,” Robinson says. “It’s
not enough to just simply look at the landscape and say, ‘Yep, 70 percent of that
is now covered with vegetation.’ Not all vegetation cover is created equal in terms
of nutritional value.”
Not all seeds will germinate the same after being planted, according to Robinson.
About 14 native seeds are typically used in seed mixes across the area, Curran adds.
Weather and soil conditions can affect which of these varieties grow, and different
wildlife species may respond differently to various vegetation species.
“Wyoming is getting higher quality restoration of habitat when we can call attention
to the different species of plants that are being established in the reclamation process,”
Robinson says.
Forbs can be useful for reestablishing pollinator habitats, Curran says, and grasses
may be preferrable for grazing animals.
Sampling multiple locations and large areas over time using the designs outlined in
the article exceeds regulatory criteria, and the use of these designs has been shown
to improve monitoring results. By using spatially balanced rotating panel sampling
designs with spatial neighborhoods, digital imagery and route optimization, data quality
can be improved, and time spent at a location can be drastically reduced.
“Across Wyoming and a lot of the western United States, where we have these cold and
arid environments, we have pretty short growing seasons and we have these really vast
expanses,” Curran says. “It’d be nearly impossible to do quantitative monitoring and
gather really good, statistically robust data across every single location in a given
year. For example, up in Pinedale, we typically have a 39- to 52-day frost-free period.
So, we really only have about a month to a month and a half of a growing season with
over 300 well pad locations and miles and miles of pipeline.”
Collecting data in that short frost-free window, with a boots-on-the-ground approach,
would be nearly impossible.
“We developed algorithms for well pad locations which are set up in sort of a patchy
matrix, and pipelines which are more linear structures -- just to make sure that we’re
spreading our sample well and getting good data representing the entire field at hand
-- and that should translate, really, to any gas field or any vast area,” Curran says.
To read the article, visit besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2688-8319.70146
