Fanshawe Students Compete to Restore Gravel Pit

Fanshawe's Integrated Land Planning Technologies (ILPT) and Landscape Design students recently toured the site for the Ontario Stone, Sand & Gravel Association's (OSSGA) annual Student Design Competition.

Each year the OSSGA, an aggregate mining association, in cooperation with mine operators and owners, chooses a mine site for the competition. Students in a range of programs with an environmental focus, such as Fanshawe's ILPT and Landscape Design programs, are invited to provide a series of plans detailing the existing situation, incremental and eventual restoration of the competition site.

Last year ILPT students secured fifth place and an honourable mention. ILPT and Landscape Design professors are confident current students will improve on that.

Fanshawe students tour aggregate mine site south of Galt, Ontario, on September 30, 2011.

This year's mine is south of Cambridge's Galt core on the east side of Highway 24. It covers approximately 136 hectares and will be in operation for another 40 years. 170 million tonnes of aggregate are produced annually in Ontario; the mine in question produces .2 percent of that.

The competition is good for both the industry and students. Operators are required to restore a mine site once mining has ceased; there are 3,800 licences for pits and quarries in Ontario representing a considerable land area. Very little of that area has been restored so there is plenty of work to come.

The OSSGA competition provides an opportunity for students to offer a receptive industry well-considered ideas for the restoration of a mined landscape; not to mention cash prizes. Students must complete their submissions by January 2012.