The Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation (CQWF) had a productive work season in 2024.
We started 2024 with a change of leadership. Jordan Condon, who coordinated the West River for seven years, took on a new job opportunity with the Atlantic Salmon Federation. In his place, two seasoned watershed workers took his place. Isaac Arsenault-Saunders and Knowlton Parkman have been loyal members of CQWF for many years and willingly took over the position. This summer had many firsts with new coordinators, but CQWF pushed through and ended a good field season.
CQWF received funding support from the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund for our Hurricane Fiona remediation activities, which helped us during our restoration work this 2024 field season. Our crew worked hard to clear previous sections of stream, as well as new stream sections within our watershed. Once sections of stream were cleared our crew installed new brush mats, and cover structures to areas in need. Another major project we completed this year is rebuilding two deflector structures by Black Brook on the main West River, and this project was also funded by the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund.
Funding was provided by The Foundation of Conservation for Atlantic Salmon to install seven Atlantic Salmon bed structures in Brookvale. This involved us making “V” structures in appropriate areas within the stream section, and infilling the structures with Nova Scotia rock. This was done due to the lack of a preferred substrate that our salmon need to spawn. We are looking forward to monitoring these beds for future spawning.
Monitoring activities are summarized in our technical reports which are available on our website and include redd surveys, electrofishing surveys, and water quality results. These reports provide insight into measured metrics and habitat indicators that we incorporate into our management decisions.
The work we accomplished during our field season wouldn’t be possible without certain partner collaboration and financial funding support. The following are partners and programs we would like to acknowledge:
- The Foundation of Conservation for Atlantic Salmon
- Canada Summer Jobs Fund
- Department of Communities Land and Environment
- Department of Fisheries and Ocean
- Department of Transportation Infrastructure and Energy
- Parks Canada
- Post-Secondary Student Support Program
- Jobs for Youth Program
- PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund
- Along with other Watershed groups and many individuals who donated their time and knowledge!
Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation 