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The Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation (CQWF) had a productive work season in 2022 with an interesting end to the field season! The following will discuss an overview of our work season and highlight some of our larger project aspects.

Our summer field crew spent a portion of the summer working on improving Atlantic salmon spawning and juvenile rearing habitat on the lower reaches of Howell’s Brook and also on the main West River. Our crew placed 16 tonnes of Nova Scotia river rock at 17 spawning areas (13 on Howell’s Brook and 4 on the main West River). The goal of this was to provide high-quality spawning substrate with soft engineered structures in place to encourage female salmon to spawn in high-quality habitat with the hopes of increasing embryo survival. At 19 locations another 16 tonnes of R5 rock was placed in riffle areas along the lower reaches of Howell’s Brook to help improve juvenile rearing habitat nearby the improved spawning areas. The goal of this was to increase the stream bottom coarseness in order to provide abundant juvenile rearing habitat to reduce competitiveness and increase survival. This project was funded by the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation and the PEI Watershed Alliances Habitat Stewardship Fund.

CQWF partnered with the Department of Environment and Transportation Infrastructure and Energy in a final act to remove and dispose of contaminated soils in Bonshaw. There was an accident in the 1970s and a tractor trailer carrying a load of bunker fuel left the highway in Bonshaw and crashed nearby the river. Most of the accident was cleaned up but there was a portion of the load buried on site. Moving forward to recent years the bunker fuel was still being picked up by CQWF as the summer temperatures began to rise the bunker fuel would also rise to the surface along the edge of the river. In 2022, CQWF had Island Coastal Services excavated the accident site and had the contaminated spoils disposed of at the East Prince Waste Management Facility in Wellington.

CQWF was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Fund for restoration work on the Clyde River. CQWF spent a considerable amount of time restoring aspects of the Clyde River. This involved revisiting the newly restored sections of stream (2021) to continue the restoration process and also conducted stream maintenance along 3.95km of stream. Along these newly enhanced sections, 21 cover logs and 15 brush mats were installed. A sediment trap was re-excavated on the west branch permanently removing 300 m³ of sediment. To cap off the work on the Clyde River in 2022 CQWF assisted in maintenance along the DTIE Cornwall by-pass compensation project site. A stream bank was eroding so rock was placed to help prevent further bank erosion.  

The damage that occurred from Fiona left Islanders in shock. The West River took significant damage that will have consequences for many years to come. CQWF has started cleaning up the mess and ensuring our important spawning grounds remain accessible to migrating Atlantic salmon and brook trout. To date, CQWF removed +60 blockages along the main West River and lower Howell’s Brook. The fallen trees will provide habitat for salmonids but the issue is the sheer volume and timing of the storm. Dozens of blockages plugging the streams will prove challenges to migrating fish and also will slow the stream flow in key spawning areas rendering them not ideal for redd creation with the slower flow velocities. 

CQWF takes pride in being leaders for stream restoration on PEI. CQWF uses a holistic approach when managing sections of streams and considering what the habitat usage is in areas and aligning the major limiting factors that need to be addressed. CQWF managed 38km of river in 2022 and along the way installed 79 brush mats, 93 cover structures, 43 spawning beds, and planted over 1,200 trees!

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: 

• Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation
• Abegweit Biodiversity Enhancement Hatchery
• 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
• Habitat Stewardship Program
• Jobs for Youth Program
• PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund
• Along with other Watershed groups and many individuals who donated their time and knowledge!

Though a strange year considering what has been going on around us in 2020 it was still a productive year for the Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation (CQWF)! Our crew focused restoration efforts on Quinn’s Brook and Howell’s Brook, the two main tributaries of the West River by aiming to improve the stream meander sequence along with habitat features utilized by salmonids. Our crew also focused on intensively enhancing specific life stage requirements for Atlantic salmon on Howell’s Brook and in the lower section of the West River. In total some of our performance measurements included: 33.4km of stream channel maintained, 3.4 km of newly restored stream, 71 brush mats, 23 spawning enhancement sites, 5,794m 2 of juvenile riffle habitat enhanced, 4 pool creating structures, 110 cover structures, 1,145 native trees and shrubs planted covering 4,626m 2 and much more other productive work was carried out! In addition to our restoration activities we dug out three of our sediment traps located at: Ross Rd, Mill Rd and the upper end of Carragher’s Pond for a total of 2,000m 3 of sediment permanently removed from the stream channel.

CQWF partnered with UPEI on a Graduate research project regarding Atlantic salmon on the West River. This project is still in the data collection phase and will be ongoing into 2021. Other collaborations that CQWF had during 2020 was with the PEI Watershed Alliance’s Habitat Stewardship Program , which also involved Atlantic salmon expect it involved working with other salmon rivers across the Island and implementing Best Management Projects for salmon habitat restoration. To complement the ongoing salmon habitat restoration work on the West River we had another successful year stocking juvenile salmon in the head water regions of Brookvale and Howell’s Brook with the goal of having these juveniles return as adults to spawn and increase local populations. We had the opportunity to host three volunteer days where our eager volunteers had the chance to plant ~200 trees one day, build one enormous brush mat another and on the last day they learned about redd identification and related restoration work.

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: Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation, Abegweit Biodiversity Enhancement Hatchery, 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 , University of Prince Edward Island, and the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund, along with other Watershed groups and many individuals who donated their time and knowledge!

CQWF had quite the productive field season during 2018! Aside from the 21km of normal stream channel maintenance the field crew restored 2.7 km of stream throughout different areas in the West and Clyde river watersheds. These areas were predominately alders with little diversity and excessive sediment. Some 54 brushmats were constructed this summer to help capture and remove some of the mobile sediment. Other structures that crew installed were 33 full length cover logs, 8 boulder clusters, 32 spawning sites, 1 wing deflector, 1 new by-pass sediment trap and 1 other pond excavation project. On top of the in stream structures the crew planted 1041 trees/shrubs to help restore riparian habitat and improve the buffer zone in certain areas.

CQWF hosted 2 volunteer days and we would like to thank everyone who came and helped out! We would also like to thank our funding partners as we wouldn’t have been able to do the work mentioned above! Our funding partners were: Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Fund, Dept. of Communities, Land & Environment, Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Dept. of Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy. We look forward to 2019 and doing more great work for our rivers!

We would like to send a huge thanks out to everyone who made it out to our 3rd annual golf fundraiser. With great weather and great golfers it was a grand time! We’d like to thank our sponsors for donating prizes: Phillips Feed, Abegweit Animal Hospital, Kent, Home Depot, Lisa Purcell, Eagles Glenn. We would also like to thank the volunteers who organized this event and Strathgartney Highlands golf course for hosting us!

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The Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation is hosting a Parent – Youth Outdoor Camp the weekend of May 29-31, 2015, for youth aged 10-13 accompanied by a parent. The camp will be held at the Riverdale Scout Camp on Riverdale Road in Green Bay along the scenic West River.

Continue reading “2015 Parent – Youth Outdoor Camp”

The West River, Hunter-Clyde and Wheatley River watershed groups are pleased to present the 2015 PEI Winter Woodlot Tour taking place on Saturday, January 31 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Brookvale Nordic Site, 1800 route 13 in Brookvale. Take part in this free event for individuals and families of all ages – there is something for everyone! See the poster for more information.