KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT Rare Plants and Rare Ecological Communities (Condition 8) KXL1399-STCE-EN-RP-0002 Rev C January 2019 Prepared for: TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Limited Partnership A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of TransCanada PipeLines Limited Calgary, Alberta Prepared by: Stantec Consulting Ltd. Calgary, Alberta KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT RARE PLANTS AND RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES (CONDITION 8) Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................... I ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... III 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1.1 2.0 SURVEY METHODS ..................................................................................................... 2.1 2.1 SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS SURVEYS ......................................................................... 2.1 2.1.1 Previous Rare Plants .................................................................................... 2.1 2.1.2 Previous Rare Ecological Communities ....................................................... 2.2 2.1.3 Other Data Sources ...................................................................................... 2.2 2.2 2017 SURVEYS ............................................................................................................. 2.2 2.2.1 Rare Plants ................................................................................................... 2.3 2.2.2 Rare Ecological Communities ...................................................................... 2.4 3.0 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................... 3.1 3.1 RARE PLANTS .............................................................................................................. 3.1 3.1.1 Alberta .......................................................................................................... 3.1 3.1.2 Saskatchewan .............................................................................................. 3.5 3.1.3 Mitigation Changes due to Updates in Provincial Species Ranks and Species Identification .................................................................................... 3.9 3.2 RARE PLANT POLYGONS ......................................................................................... 3.10 3.3 RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES ........................................................................ 3.11 4.0 MITIGATION .................................................................................................................. 4.1 4.1 MITIGATION STRATEGIES .......................................................................................... 4.1 4.1.1 Avoidance of Effects on Rare Plants and Rare Ecological Communities ................................................................................................. 4.1 4.1.2 Reducing Effects on Rare Plants and Rare Ecological Communities .......... 4.1 4.1.3 Species-specific Mitigation Strategies .......................................................... 4.2 4.1.4 Mitigation Strategies for Rare Plants ............................................................ 4.2 4.1.5 Mitigation Strategies for Rare Ecological Communities ................................ 4.5 4.2 CONSTRUCTION MITIGATION MEASURES ............................................................... 4.5 4.2.1 Construction Mitigation for SARA-listed Plants ............................................ 4.6 4.2.2 Construction Mitigation for Provincially-listed Rare Plants ........................... 4.7 4.2.3 Construction Mitigation for Rare Ecological Communities ............................ 4.8 4.3 SUPPLEMENTAL MITIGATION FOR RARE PLANTS .................................................. 4.8 4.3.1 Rare Plants Associated with Uplands ........................................................... 4.8 4.3.2 Rare Plants Associated with Wetlands ......................................................... 4.9 4.3.3 Seed Collection and Transplantation Completed ....................................... 4.10 4.4 MITIGATION FOR RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES .......................................... 4.11 5.0 ASSESSING MITIGATION SUCCESS .......................................................................... 5.1 5.1 DETERMINING THE EXTENT OF NON-AVOIDABLE EFFECTS ................................. 5.1 5.2 POST-CONSTRUCTION MONITORING ....................................................................... 5.1 KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT RARE PLANTS AND RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES (CONDITION 8) 5.2.1 Rationale for Post-Construction Monitoring .................................................. 5.1 5.2.2 Scope of Post-Construction Environmental Monitoring ................................ 5.2 5.3 POST-CONSTRUCTION MONITORING SURVEY METHODS .................................... 5.3 5.3.1 Mitigation Area .............................................................................................. 5.3 5.3.2 Rare Plant Monitoring Survey Protocols ....................................................... 5.3 5.3.3 Rare Ecological Community Monitoring Survey Protocols ........................... 5.4 5.3.4 Qualifications of Monitoring Personnel ......................................................... 5.5 5.3.5 Monitoring Schedule ..................................................................................... 5.5 5.3.6 Controls ........................................................................................................ 5.6 5.4 ASSESSING RARE PLANT MITIGATION SUCCESS ................................................... 5.6 5.5 ASSESSING RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY MITIGATION SUCCESS ................ 5.7 5.6 PLANNING FOR THE PROVISION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF OFFSET MEASURES ................................................................................................................... 5.7 6.0 REGULATORY CONSULTATION ................................................................................ 6.1 7.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 7.1 7.1 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................... 7.1 7.2 PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ................................................................................. 7.5 LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 Comparison of Rare Plant Survey Methods in the 2010 Condition 6 Filing vs. 2017 Survey Methods – Saskatchewan........................................................ 2.5 Table 3-1 Rare Plant Occurrences Identified in 2017 on or within 30 m of the Construction Footprint – Alberta ......................................................................... 3.3 Table 3-2 Rare Plant Occurrences Identified in 2017 on or within 30 m of the Construction Footprint – Saskatchewan ............................................................. 3.7 Table 3-3 Species Rank and Identification Changes .......................................................... 3.9 Table 3-4 Summary of Total Area for Each REC Identified in 2017 along the Project Construction Footprint ...................................................................................... 3.13 Table 4-1 Quarter Sections containing Occurrences within 300 m or Critical Habitat crossed by the Project Footprint ......................................................................... 4.6 Table 4-2 Supplementary Mitigation for Rare Plants Associated with Uplands .................. 4.9 Table 4-3 Supplementary Mitigation for Rare Plants Associated with Wetlands ................ 4.9 Table 4-4 Date of Seed Collection and Transplantation for Rare Plant Species .............. 4.11 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1 Keystone XL Pipeline Route through Alberta and Saskatchewan ...................... 2.7 LIST OF APPENDICES DEFINITIONS SASKATCHEWAN FIELD QUALIFICATIONS REGULATORY CONSULTATION DOCUMENTATION KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT RARE PLANTS AND RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES (CONDITION 8) RARE PLANT RECORDS ON THE CONSTRUCTION FOOTPRINT RARE PLANT RECORDS WITHIN 30 M OF THE CONSTRUCTION FOOTPRINT RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTION FOOTPRINT RARE PLANT AND RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY FIGURES PROJECT SPECIFIC MITIGATION DESCRIPTIONS OF RARE PLANT SPECIES WITHIN 30 M OF THE CONSTRUCTION FOOTPRINT KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE PROJECT RARE PLANTS AND RARE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES (CONDITION 8) Executive Summary This report assesses potential effects of Project construction on rare plant species and communities. In accordance with the National Energy Board (NEB) OH-1-2009 Reasons for Decision, Certificate OC-56 Condition 8, for the Keystone XL Pipeline Project (the Project), this report has been prepared to provide: • Results of updated surveys done in 2017 for rare plants (including Species at Risk Act (SARA) listed plants), and rare ecological communities (RECs) • Updates to mitigation plans for rare plants and REC potentially affected by Project construction, including construction mitigation and measures for post-construction mitigation • Monitoring survey protocols for post-construction reclamation of rare plants and RECs The 2017 surveys are an update to the previous rare plant and REC data collected for the Project between 2008 and 2011 as part of the 2012 Condition 8 filing