Newsletter 17

On Thursday July 30th the Souris and Area Branch of the Wildlife Federation will be hosting a nitrate clinic in conjunction with the Department of Environment, Energy, and Forestry. This event is free of charge and all are welcome to bring a sample of their own tap water (approximately 250 ml) in a tight clean container. This clinic will be running from 2pm-7pm at the Souris Striders Ski Club on the Souris Line Road.

The 2009 stream enhancement work by the Souris Wildlife staff looks to be a promising one. The funding received, enabled us to hire nine workers this summer. The funding originated from the following areas: Service Canada, Atlantic Salmon Conservation Fund, PEI Watershed Management Fund, and the Department of Innovation and Advanced Learning. So far this year we have put extensive work in numerous watersheds including: Priest Pond, Souris River, Naufrage, Rollo Bay Pond, and Cross River. Additional work will continue to be done in these systems plus other watersheds within the Souris Wildlife Management Area.
(Back, L-R) Crew Supervisors/ Chainsaw Operators- Barry Wilson & Luke Robichaud. Labourers - Calvin MacIntyre, Robbie Outhouse, Anthony MacDonald. Assistant Project Coordinator- Tim Brothers.
(Front, L-R) Labourers Chad Mooney, Jeff McLennan, Mitchell L'esperance.

The staff of the Souris & Area Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation ventured out of the stream and into the classrooms of Souris Consolidated and Eastern Kings Consolidated schools. Presentations were made on different aspects of our local ecology in the Eastern Kings area.
Marise Chapman's Grade 8 class in Souris Consolidated was given a classroom presentation on the benefits of a saltwater marsh. Following the in-class presentation the students were taken out to the actual marsh and were given the opportunity to view the procedure of installing a brushmat.
Mariska terMeer's Grade 7/8 class at Eastern Kings received a presentation the following day on the different species of fish and their habitat in the Eastern Kings area. The following Monday the group met up with the Eastern Kings class again to take them out to Gowan Brae to show them the salt marsh. They also observed pristine fish habitat that was explained in the presentation.

The presentations were well received by both schools and we look forward to putting more of these presentations on in the future.

During late fall and into the winter months an Eastern Kings prized beach, Basin Head underwent an undesirable aesthetic reformation. Driftwood, buoys, marram grass and many other forms of debris were deposited on the beach.
Parks PEI contracted the staff of Souris Wildlife to aid them in the restoration of the beach. The staff from our group joined forces with the Young Environmentalists to remove the debris from the beach.
Chainsaws were a very useful tool in cutting the debris (driftwood) into small pieces. Material was then wheel barrowed across the bridge to the lower parking lot. It was then removed by a loader and dump truck to our IMWC site.
Almost two full days of work was committed to this by our staff and the beach is back to its aesthetically pleasing self.

Debris Moved from the Beach

Before

After

In late May our Wildlife staff committed some time to reinstalling the Bald Eagle perches on Souris River. They could not withstand the high winds and ice formations of a New Years Day storm.
The new perches that are now in place along the Souris River have a noticibly different structure than previously. The pieces coming out of the side are much thicker (3-5 inches) which make for more comfortable landing areas for the eagles. The original supports were approximately 2-3 inches in diameter.
These perches are already beginning to work. On the east side of the Souris River there has been two Bald Eagles spotted on a single perch at the same time.

Wildlife Labourer, Jeff MacLennan finishing a
Bald Eagle perch directly East of the Souris Bridge.

One of the first activities that our wildlife staff took part in was tree planting. Native hardwood and softwood species were planted in various areas around the Souris Watershed.

Trees were planted in the following riparian areas: Danny Grant's, Merlin Clements', Camilla Cheveries', Cross River, and MacDonald Bridge. Tree planting is a vital tool that is used in the repairing and maintaining of riparian zones within a watershed. In the near future these 500 trees that were planted will begin to be more prevalent and visible with good growth.

Project Coordinator, Fred Cheverie
loading the truck at the J. Frank Gaudet
Tree Nursery

Crew Supervisor, Luke Robichaud
planting a a tree behind Merlin Clements'

Secretary- Paul Gallant (left) Vice-President Delbert
Francis (middle) Director- Fred Ward (right)

The Souris & Area Branch of the PEI Wildlife Federation was honoured with the award for “Souris Organization of the Year” at the annual Canada Day events. This award was accepted by three of the Souris Wildlife Federation members.

This award was an honour to receive. We plan to continue with our good work and build from the accomplishments that we thrived upon in 2009.

UPEI professor, Dr. Daryl Guignon released a report in 2009 regarding the decline of the Atlantic Salmon populations on PEI.

Dr. Guignon designated 11 river systems in PEI that still have some amounts of salmon within them. It so happens that four of the eleven are within our jurisdiction: North Lake, Priest Pond, Cross River, and Naufrage.

Our group has received funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Fund for 2009. In order to fulfill our mandate, we must provide special attention to these four rivers.

Dr. Guignon with the assistance of Todd Dupuis (Atlantic Salmon Federation), are guiding us through some enhancements in the Souris River. Dr. Guignon has designated Souris River as a “Research River.” Through innovative work we are doing on this river we hope to set a precedent for restoring salmon habitat across PEI.

We have begun preparation for this process by doing maintenance of the entire Souris River system and the installation of many “digger logs”. The latest preparation that we have accomplished was working on the Rollo Bay Pond (the location of our Family Fishing Day). This pond lost the bulk of its water and fish last year due to beaver obstruction. However, the work that was put into it this spring has raised the water level again and has established it to its original quality. This pond is going to be used as a tool in our research on Souris River. In a 100m “control area”, Rainbow Trout will be electro-seined and then moved to Rollo Bay Pond. This research project on Souris River involves many different steps and extra consideration and effort will be devoted to this river by our staff.

The Souris Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation is hosting its 3rd Annual Digital Photo Contest. It is open to entries that were photographed or videoed on or later than January 1, 2009. The closing date for entry submission is midnight November 15, 2009. All photos and videos received are displayed permanently on our website. To date over 600 entries have been received! Contest entrants may be viewed in a photo set on flickr.com.
An international judging panel is established with individuals who have professional expertise in this field. Winners will be notified as soon as the judging is completed. Awards will be presented at the Souris & Area Branch Annual Wildlife Dinner in December 2009.
The Grand Prize is presented by MacPhee's Home Hardware Building Centre. It is a Sony Cybershot 8.1 megapizel DSC-W150 camera with a 5x optical zoom. It includes a battery charger, battery pack, USB cable, CD ROM and a wrist strap. Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Souris Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation will donate a first, second and third prize for each category.
A special judges award will be presented to the Most Promising Youth Photographer.
New for 2009 will be a special People's Choice Award . . .
Contest Rules:

Nicole MacAulay displays the prize camera

The photo or video must be digital.
The photo or video must be taken in the year 2009.
The photo must be taken within the prescribed area. For the purposes of this contest - the territory includes the communities of Primrose, Strathcona, Forest Hill, Five Houses, Ashton, Goose River and all points east. The primary area is known as the region served by the Souris Family of Schools.
Goose River is a part of the Cow River Watershed. The photo or video must be of:
- living birds and/or native animals
- native flora and/or fauna
- native sea creatures
- weather related patterns of cloud cover, sunsets, sunrises, rainbows, lightning, storms
- land formations or eco-systems

Contest organizers and judges reserve the right not to upload or judge inappropriate material.

An individual, may summit an unlimited number of entries but only one prize per person within the photo categories. Only one prize per person will be awarded within the video category.

This is a friendly contest, to showcase talent and hone skills. The contest coordinator and three judges are NOT eligible. All others are.

Photos may be delivered or e-mailed to: Waldron H. Leard, contest coordinator, with your name, home address, date of photo, location, category and phone number at: whleard@ekpei.ca

Selected individual entries will be displayed at a prominent display area in the Main Street Mall in Souris or at selected community events.

Videos may be delivered to Waldron Leard at 12 Heritage Lane, Kingsboro, PEI, Canada. Videos must be taken in the year 2009. They may be uploaded to Bird Cinema, flickr.com, Google Video, and You Tube. Other video hosting sites may be acceptable by prior arrangement. You must supply the accurate links via e-mail to and allow them to be embedded in this site for judging purposes. Any material deemed to be inappropriate, including foul and abusive language, will NOT be accepted.

The summer of 2009 is beginning to look very promising. The summer staff accomplished a tremendous amount of work already and there is still plenty of time left. Much of the work done is visible to the community and shows how busy our summer staff really is.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Susan Leard for nominating our group for Souris Organization of the Year. Recognition like this gives us a boost and enables us to continue on with our work knowing that it is not going unnoticed.

I am ecstatic to hear that the Souris River has been designated a “Research River” for Atlantic Salmon. Dr. Guignon will be leading the research. Approximately 5000 - 8000 juvenile salmon will be released into the river. This type of research is great for the Souris River Watershed!

We are in full swing this summer with our stream enhancement crews in operation. We try our best to visit as many watersheds as possible to do this type of work, but eventually we have to priorize. A problem I always have is locating access roads to many of our streams as our topographical mapping on PEI was last done approximately nine years ago. If you have property that has reasonable easy access feel free to contact me (687-3436) as it could speed up stream enhancement in your area.

Our website www.ekpei.ca is receiving a great deal of attention with approximately 10,000-12,000 individual visits consistently on a daily basis. This is phenomenal for our area and we recommend it as a site that you should visit regularly. We have new material regularly placed on this website with numerous photographs of our work. Obviously, this wouldn't happen without the effort of our webmaster, Waldron Leard.

All pictures appearing on this site or its associated flickr account are the property of the photographers and the Souris & Area Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation.
They may not be copied without permission of the photographer and the Souris & Area Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation.