Trails gone, rivers blocked: Fiona cleanup in watersheds will take years

Watershed management groups have been facing new challenges since post-tropical storm Fiona ripped across P.E.I. last fall, but the good news is that nature can be left to clean up most of the damage.

"Fiona was a natural event," said provincial watershed ecologist Mary Finch.

"The plants and the animals and the fish are accustomed to dealing with events like this. From an ecological perspective, they're going to be OK."

Finch has been working with watershed groups across the Island, advising them how to approach the mess Fiona left behind: what's a danger to the public, what's not ideal for wildlife populations, and what can be left where it fell.

While it is part of a natural process, the storm's aftermath has been a setback for ecological work.

"It was a little bit overwhelming," said Hannah Murnaghan of the Morell River Management Cooperative.

"A lot of our trails were gone that we used to access our project sites."

Our perception of what an ecosystem or river scene should look like is sometimes different from what ecologically is good. That mess can be healthy for the ecosystem.- Mary Finch, provincial watershed ecologist

Those projects include tracking salmon populations and recording water temperatures in different areas of streams in the watersheds.

Water temperatures are an important factor for the health of salmon and trout.

With trails blocked by hundreds of trees last fall, none of those recordings were made. It is data that's permanently lost, which will add to the difficulty of monitoring trends in the environment.

Public safety is another consideration.

"The Morell River in particular is a very popular canoe route," Murnaghan said.

"The concern with all the trees down is that when there's very high water and the water's flowing really fast, if a canoe gets pushed up against one of those trees it can create kind of a scary situation for someone."

While the group wants to clear canoe routes, it will leave some trees in the rivers because they can create shelter for fish.

Strategic replanting

Fiona created large cleared areas in the Morell watershed that were once forest.

They will be forest again, and the Morell River Management Cooperative is working to ensure they will be healthier than before. The cooperative is planting a large variety of native species in the hopes a more resilient woodland will grow in the future.

Though nature for the most part will be left to take its course, Finch said watershed groups will be doing recovery work for years.

"It's OK if it doesn't all get done this year," she said.

"Our perception of what an ecosystem or river scene should look like is sometimes different from what ecologically is good. That mess can be healthy for the ecosystem. Animals, fish, insects and plants find habitat in those spaces."