Ann Smreciu is a champion of native plants. For more than 30 years she has worked to re-establish Alberta’s native plants on disturbed lands, from dams and utility corridors to landfills and mine spoils. At the outset of her career, relatively few species could be considered for such projects because supplies of viable seed were non-existent or extremely limited, and little was known about their requirements for germination or seedling establishment. Ann’s early work with prairie wildflowers saw her collect substantial quantities of seeds of a wide range of native species from southern Alberta, conduct experiments concerning viability and pretreatments required for germination, and run greenhouse and field trials that established seedlings often by out planting on disturbed sites. Her success was measured in field performance, monitoring over several years. This success led to similar work with more central and northern species in the province, culminating in significant contributions to revegetation at sites located at the Oldman River Dam, Cloverbar Landfill in Edmonton, along pipelines, and at the Oil Sands. Her lifelong ambition has been to see native seeds banked for use in reclamation in the province and this was realized in 2009 with the creation of the Oil Sands Vegetation Cooperative.
