What is reclamation?
Reclamation means to assist in the repair or recovery of highly disturbed or degraded ecosystems to benefit native plants and animals by setting sites on a trajectory towards functioning habitats and ecological communities that are similar to surrounding, naturally occurring environments. During this process, the impacts of oil and gas development are minimized.
Planning for successful reclamation
Adequate planning, including pre-development site assessments, clear expectations of final reclamation outcomes and the steps in between, can greatly improve reclamation success and minimize the risk of long-term land degradation. A reclamation plan identifies all the lands that will be damaged or disturbed during development and production, outlines how and when the operator plans to implement interim and final reclamation using a monitoring plan and standards and benchmarks for reclamation success, taking into account relevant federal and state regulations and policies.
Interim reclamation has become increasingly important as well pads have become larger to accommodate drilling of multiple wells. Substantial portions of a well pad can be quickly reclaimed, leaving just the production footprint. Interim reclamation takes place during operations and covers the areas that aren’t needed for active, long-term production and transportation.
Reclamation plans should reflect *best management practices for surface management from planning and initial construction to final reclamation and monitoring after a well is plugged and the footprint is reclaimed.
What defines successful reclamation?
Reclamation has several phases, including interim and final reclamation, which each have differing overall goals.
Interim reclamation is done during the productive life of an energy facility and seeks to reduce the effective footprint of the facility by reestablishing desired vegetation and stabilizing soils in disturbed areas not needed for access and fluid mineral production. Steps during this phase include contouring a landform in such a way so that healthy, biologically active topsoil is maintained; controlling erosion, runoff and sediment transport; and seeding with appropriate plant species.
Final reclamation is done after the productive life of the oil or gas facility has ended and wells have been safely plugged. Final reclamation includes removing all infrastructure, debris and contamination; conducting additional topsoil respreading; applying seed; and ensuring that the condition of the land can meet established final reclamation standards. These standards include visual aesthetic or scenic values, general site cleanup, as well as erosion and weed control and revegetation success requirements.
An important contribution from this report is guidance for developing quantitative **benchmarks for determining if erosion and vegetation standards have been met, applicable to both interim and final reclamation. These reclamation benchmarks include indicators of erosion and site stability, species composition and community structure.
Successful reclamation is achieved when the standards defining soil and vegetation recovery are met, and a self-sustaining, vigorous, diverse, native, or approved plant community that minimizes visual land disturbance, provides forage, stabilizes soils and prevents noxious weeds from taking hold is in place.
*Best management practices stipulate state-of-the-art reclamation of specific impacts that result from surface operations.
**A benchmark is an indicator value, or range of values, that describes desired conditions that, when departed from, trigger adjustments to management practices, trigger additional data collection, or indicate management success.
Want to learn more about reclamation?
Check out the Oil and Gas Reclamation—Operations, Monitoring Methods, and Standards report: https://doi.org/10.3133/tm18A1
The USGS partners with BLM and other DOI partners on reclamation projects and research
The BLM is responsible for managing roughly 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states. It also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. As of the end of fiscal year 2023, the BLM managed more than 23 million leased federal acres under federal oil and gas leases, and roughly 965,000 producing federal wells completions and approximately 8,400 idle federal wells. Though some of these are overseen by other surface management agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM shares responsibilities for reclamation on Indian Trust lands. This is in addition to development on lands held in Trust for Tribal Nations, for which the BLM shares management obligations and reclamation responsibilities. These wells add to the growing number of federal wells that will eventually need some form of remediation and reclamation.
Oil and Gas Reclamation - About
Southwest Energy Exploration, Development, and Reclamation (SWEDR)
New Tools for Modern Land Management Decisions
Priority Landscapes: Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation
Remote Sensing of Energy Development
Well Pad Reclamation and Research
Smart Energy Development: Tools for Informed Development & Successful Reclamation
What is reclamation?
Reclamation means to assist in the repair or recovery of highly disturbed or degraded ecosystems to benefit native plants and animals by setting sites on a trajectory towards functioning habitats and ecological communities that are similar to surrounding, naturally occurring environments. During this process, the impacts of oil and gas development are minimized.
Planning for successful reclamation
Adequate planning, including pre-development site assessments, clear expectations of final reclamation outcomes and the steps in between, can greatly improve reclamation success and minimize the risk of long-term land degradation. A reclamation plan identifies all the lands that will be damaged or disturbed during development and production, outlines how and when the operator plans to implement interim and final reclamation using a monitoring plan and standards and benchmarks for reclamation success, taking into account relevant federal and state regulations and policies.
Interim reclamation has become increasingly important as well pads have become larger to accommodate drilling of multiple wells. Substantial portions of a well pad can be quickly reclaimed, leaving just the production footprint. Interim reclamation takes place during operations and covers the areas that aren’t needed for active, long-term production and transportation.
Reclamation plans should reflect *best management practices for surface management from planning and initial construction to final reclamation and monitoring after a well is plugged and the footprint is reclaimed.
What defines successful reclamation?
Reclamation has several phases, including interim and final reclamation, which each have differing overall goals.
Interim reclamation is done during the productive life of an energy facility and seeks to reduce the effective footprint of the facility by reestablishing desired vegetation and stabilizing soils in disturbed areas not needed for access and fluid mineral production. Steps during this phase include contouring a landform in such a way so that healthy, biologically active topsoil is maintained; controlling erosion, runoff and sediment transport; and seeding with appropriate plant species.
Final reclamation is done after the productive life of the oil or gas facility has ended and wells have been safely plugged. Final reclamation includes removing all infrastructure, debris and contamination; conducting additional topsoil respreading; applying seed; and ensuring that the condition of the land can meet established final reclamation standards. These standards include visual aesthetic or scenic values, general site cleanup, as well as erosion and weed control and revegetation success requirements.
An important contribution from this report is guidance for developing quantitative **benchmarks for determining if erosion and vegetation standards have been met, applicable to both interim and final reclamation. These reclamation benchmarks include indicators of erosion and site stability, species composition and community structure.
Successful reclamation is achieved when the standards defining soil and vegetation recovery are met, and a self-sustaining, vigorous, diverse, native, or approved plant community that minimizes visual land disturbance, provides forage, stabilizes soils and prevents noxious weeds from taking hold is in place.
*Best management practices stipulate state-of-the-art reclamation of specific impacts that result from surface operations.
**A benchmark is an indicator value, or range of values, that describes desired conditions that, when departed from, trigger adjustments to management practices, trigger additional data collection, or indicate management success.
Want to learn more about reclamation?
Check out the Oil and Gas Reclamation—Operations, Monitoring Methods, and Standards report: https://doi.org/10.3133/tm18A1
The USGS partners with BLM and other DOI partners on reclamation projects and research
The BLM is responsible for managing roughly 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states. It also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. As of the end of fiscal year 2023, the BLM managed more than 23 million leased federal acres under federal oil and gas leases, and roughly 965,000 producing federal wells completions and approximately 8,400 idle federal wells. Though some of these are overseen by other surface management agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM shares responsibilities for reclamation on Indian Trust lands. This is in addition to development on lands held in Trust for Tribal Nations, for which the BLM shares management obligations and reclamation responsibilities. These wells add to the growing number of federal wells that will eventually need some form of remediation and reclamation.