June 16, 2023
G’day everyone!
Summer and hot weather are officially here but the SSWA crew shows no signs of slowing down! This week the crew began stream restoration in the DeSable watershed. The last of the stream assessments were finished and wrapped up last week and now it’s time to get down to business. Stream restoration is a large undertaking that requires lots of hard work and hours spent in the streams, it can include actions such as removing fallen trees to allow for fish passage, constructing brush mats to catch sediment, placing deflector logs to help direct water flow and much more!
On Tuesday, SSWA and the Crapaud community were very excited to officially open a new outdoor classroom! This outdoor classroom was constructed in honor of Daryl Guignion who was a valued professor at UPEI and often worked with many of the watersheds on PEI. This park is open for everyone to use and will be managed by the Crapaud municipality going forwards.
Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning were spent gathering information in the DeSable estuary. First the crew put on their sailing hats and took to the ships (well, ballcaps and kayaks that is) on a mission to scout the area for eelgrass, a native seagrass that provides many benefits to its surrounding environment. The next day the crew was back, and with a little help from Dave at BBEMA they carried out a fish population survey. Several kinds of sea life were found including, mummichogs, silversides, flounders, crabs and shrimp! No need to worry, after being identified and recorded each and every sea creature was safely released back where they were found.
On Friday the crew put in a good morning’s work at the Westmorland nature park, mowing, fixing signs, trimming bushes and planting trees. The afternoon brought us back to our regularly scheduled programming with preparations made for next week, maintenance done on the chainsaws and a thorough cleaning of our equipment shed.
Make sure your safety equipment is up to date and in good repair!
Love, SSWA
