The fund also supports educational programs such as the longstanding Fish Friends school project put on by the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Grade 4 Project Webfoot Wetland Education Program.

“(The idea is) to expose children to the wildlife habitat — just the experience because they (sometimes) don’t know a duck from a goose,” says Fred Cheverie, who is chair of the Wildlife Conservation Fund.

One of the requirements of applicants is that they have to show that at least half of the money coming into the project is matched with money from other sources.

“It can be in-kind so it can be people volunteering their time, but it can also be cash, of course,” Waddell says.

“So some of these projects coming in may be asking for $5,000 from the conservation fund, but it may be a $30,000 project because they’ve got (input from) Jobs for Youth, they’ve got EDA (Employment Development Agency) money, people volunteering their time, funds from Shell (Environmental Fund), whatever it may be.”

Some projects are one-time annual occurrences, but others are ongoing, like the Souris and Area Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation’s wildlife habitat enhancement work and public awareness campaigns such as their incredibly popular annual photo contest.

“The bang for the buck is incredible with that particular group . . . the main reason is because they cover such a large area and they do so much work for the money that they get,” says Waddell, who admits that it’s sometimes difficult to directly demonstrate to people the effects of the work being done by projects funded in part by the Wildlife Conservation Fund.

“It is because a lot of the repair work on habitat isn’t immediately obvious and it takes years and years to repair some of the damage that’s been done to some of these areas, particularly streams,” she says.

However, during one near-record rainfall during hurricane Hannah the Souris River ran red with silt, as most rivers on P.E.I. But within a few hours it was back to normal, while it took much longer for others to recover.

“That was partly because the stream restoration work was done but also done with other programs that Souris was doing with farmers in terms of extended buffer zones and good riparian zones, things of that nature,” Cheverie says.

The fund is not just for watersheds and watershed work, Waddell adds.

“This is wildlife habitat and wildlife populations. They have to directly benefit from these projects. So that’s why we have things like research (projects such as a study of local muskrat populations). And education projects are also really important as well,” she says.

“All of these research projects give all Islanders a better idea of what’s happening to specific wildlife populations, why there may be declines or maybe increases? And what the future needs of that wildlife might be and how we can meet those needs.”

From fish eggs to fry
The fishy lifecycle of Atlantic salmon is one component of the longstanding Fish Friends school program

There’s not much action in the fish tank in John MacFarlane’s Grade 6 classroom in Prince Street School in Charlottetown.

However, there is plenty of anticipation about the fish to come as this Fish Friends school project comes to life as the days go by.

“Oh, I think I see a leech!” 11-year-old Kendol Wright exclaims in shivery horror, trying to draw the eye of her 12-year-old classmates Lee Ripley, David Banbrick and Craig Ross to the illusive spot of her in-tank sighting.

Prince Street is one of 18 Prince Edward Island schools participating in the Atlantic Salmon Federation’s 17th annual Fish Friends program, in which children in Grades 4-6 nurture their own batch of fish eggs into fry for eventual release into local waterways.

This year 240 volunteers delivered more than 70,000 eggs to 681 classrooms in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and New England.

The eggs for the Island portion of the program, which is funded in part by P.E.I.’s Wildlife Conservation Fund, were distributed a little more than a month ago,

“The eggs hatched and the (baby fish) went under the rocks,” says Craig.

“They’re still alevin,” David says, spelling out the name of this particular stage of the fish lifecycle.

MacFarlane’s class involvement in the Fish Friends started about 12 years ago. The program comes with an adaptable curriculum. Over the years he has tied the program in an informal way to subjects, such as social studies, health and science that have an environmental component.

“It fits in to several areas,” he says.

On the current events side of things, the hot topic for the students on this day was the breaking of the dam at Scales Pond and the effect of the excessive siltation on the fish populations in the Dunk River.

“The odds aren’t good for survival,” David says.

“They need rocks to hide under,” Lee explains.

When this classroom’s fish reach the to-be-freed stage, they will head to Carragher’s Pond in Emyvale and experience the added bonus of a canoeing adventure.

“It’s a one-day field trip. We do the egg release, we see the (habitat restoration) work that was done in the West River and Carragher’s Pond and so some canoeing,” MacFarlane says.

Fish Friends directly impacts about 20,000 students each year. It has reached more than 260,000 since the program began in 1992, not counting parents and teachers who have rekindled their interest in rivers and wildlife.

“It’s just the awareness of nature but it’s also the concept that what happens to salmon will eventually happen to us, that siltation, pollution, all these elements that are having a drastic impact on salmon is affecting our Island,” MacFarlane says. “What we can do to assist the salmon will eventually assist us living on this island. If you’re kind to the island, if you’re kind to the salmon, you’re kind to the people in the future.”

Muskrat motives
Two-year research project to take a good long look at some of the potential factors in P.E.I.’s declining muskrat population.

Depending on your freak-out factor, muskrats are either cute little animals deserving of that 1970s Muskrat Love hit by Captain and Tennille or one step away from a raunchy household rodent.

But one thing is for sure, there are far less of them now in P.E.I. marshes than in recent decades past.

In response to this, a two-year research project will be taking a good long look at this semi-aquatic animal both in the lab and in its outdoor habitat to try to determine the cause of this population decline.

“It’s going to be interesting, especially the fieldwork, because it’s going to involve basically going to a marsh around dusk with night vision goggles and staying there for a period of time in the evening, just watching to see what happens,” says Garry Gregory, who is the graduate student in the masters program at Atlantic Veterinary College conducting the study.

It was the P.E.I. Trappers Association that noticed a significant drop in the muskrat population, especially in the Eastern Kings region.

“There are not really other monitoring programs in P.E.I. for muskrat populations so they were just recording declining catches so they were a bit concerned and brought it to the attention of wildlife biologists,” says Gregory.

The study, which started in September 2008, is a project of the P.E.I. Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry, the P.E.I. Trappers Association, the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre and the UPEI departments of biology, pathology and microbiology. It is also funded in part by the Wildlife Conservation Fund.

It will combine fieldwork and laboratory work to identify the cause or factors responsible for the decline and hopefully restore the muskrat populations to healthy, sustainable levels. Potential factors may include predation, disease, habitat degradation and water contamination. Trapping isn’t expected to be a factor.

“Muskrats have been very resilient to harvest. Studies (elsewhere) have shown that you have can up to harvest up to 80 per cent (and be sustainable),” Gregory says.

“We have (also) data to show that there are less trapped now than there has been in the past for a variety of reasons, such as low pelt prices. And the species has been declining, despite reduced trapper effort.”

Trappers are supplying the carcasses for the first phase of the study that is concentrating on 28 marsh areas on P.E.I. There was some general research done in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the population was still relatively healthy, so there is some data for comparison’s sake.

“The carcass analysis in the lab (will determine) the age and the sex of the muskrat so we’re able to determine if there’s any change in the population structure,” Gregory says.

Liver tissue will also be tested to determine if any contaminants, such as pesticides or heavy metals, are present to see if that might be playing a role in the population decline.

The fieldwork will be conducted this summer.

“I think the study will give some good background data and maybe hopefully what we’ll find can be incorporated into some management decisions that will help the muskrat populations get back where they should be.”