We had an exciting and productive summer thanks to our excellent field crew. We really appreciate all the hard work that was done by our crew, consisting of: Sarah MacWilliams, Bailey Chapman, Maddy MacLeod, and Heidi Wheeler. We are very grateful to have received student wage funding from the Skills PEI post-secondary student program, and the Canada Summer Jobs program.
We accomplished a great deal over 3 months, including a major in-stream restoration project and tree swallow monitoring & banding. Here is a brief summary of our accomplishments:
- In total, WRIG planted, watered, and maintained over 700 native trees & shrubs in riparian & upland areas in the watershed!
- We also donated red oak trees during the Canada Day event in North Rustico and during our annual river duck race fundraiser event in August.
- The crew was able to remove an incredible 1030 kg of invasive bittersweet nightshade plant material from several areas that were blocked up with this matting plant.
- Every week, water quality was monitored at 20 sites in the watershed, the picnic area at Rackham’s Pond was landscaped, and our otter monitoring trail cameras were checked.
- Every 2 weeks a canoe survey to the Oyster Bed bridge was conducted to assess for signs of anoxia and the crew presented information at the Cavendish beach information hut.
We continued to monitor the 10 special tree swallow nesting/banding boxes that were installed in 2024 and added an additional 5 boxes to this program. From May to July, WRIG staff visited each box weekly to monitor for nesting activity. Nine of the fifteen boxes were successful and 45 tree swallow chicks were banded! We also banded 10 adults and had 5 recaptures from 2024. Thank you to the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund for supporting this cross-watershed project and for continually supporting PEI watershed groups.
We worked on a major project to reconnect the river to its floodplain at a site just upstream of Rackham’s Pond on the Wheatley River. This reconnection was achieved by regrading the slope of the riverbank along this section, which will help to slow down water flow in this area, allow any in-stream silt to settle out in the floodplain vegetation, and mitigate further streambank erosion. The site is now replanted with native vegetation and the banks are armoured with rock. We’re looking forward to monitoring the impacts of this work into the future! We’d like to acknowledge the PEI Watershed Alliance for supporting this initiative and DFO’s Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Fund for generously funding this project.
