Spawning Habitat Improvement in Brookvale, PEI

Description: The Central Queens Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation (CQWF) will be undertaking salmon habitat restoration activities in 2024, including: (1) extending spawning habitat rehabilitation activities into Brookvale (2) continuing to address Hurricane Fiona damage and (3) producing educational content for salmon restoration tactics on PEI.

(1) One key activity identified in CQWF’s Salmon Habitat Management Strategy is improving spawning habitat in the Brookvale region. There are large sections of unsuitable spawning habitat due to the lack of ideal substrate (shale dominant,) which can be addressed by installing ideal sized substrate in areas with suitable hydraulic parameters. Local substrate (when possible) and Nova Scotia river rock will be used in combination with soft engineered structures to provide ideal spawning habitat conditions. This will increase spawning habitat in the upper watershed region at +8 sites. This tactic has been proven to be effective on the lower-mid reaches of the West River. Regular spawning enhancement activities will occur at another ~45 locations throughout the watershed.

(2) CQWF will continue their efforts to mitigate damages from Hurricane Fiona. This is a unique opportunity to create new productive habitat components (cover structures, new spawning habitat via pinch points etc. by using the excessive and accessible woody debris.

(3) To improve the overall capabilities of PEI’s salmon restoration efforts, CQWF will produce a short educational video regarding Atlantic salmon habitat restoration tactics and considerations (gravel beds and placement) to be made available as reference material for other salmon groups. CQWF has produced similar restoration educational videos, and they are available on CQWF’s YouTube channel.

In addition to the three main project activities, other activities CQWF will conduct include:

– Continue annual maintenance on important salmon habitat areas, gather important information for future management considerations (redd surveys, electrofishing report, water quality monitoring), and conduct structure maintenance/construction (gravel beds, cover structures, digger logs).

– Depending on the quality of the report produced in 2023 regarding the characterization of spawning habitat CQWF may decide to conduct one more year of data collecting to complete this report at a higher level.

– Riparian enhancement will continue as this indirectly influences salmon habitat qualities.

– Repairing/rebuilding degraded pool deflectors (built in the early 2000’s) that serve as important holding pools for migrating adult salmon.