Salmon Spawning Habitat Enhancement – Southwest Brook Branch

The project will concentrate on enhancing instream habitats for Atlantic Salmon across the Dunk River sub watershed. The project activities will mitigate the impact of invasive species and habitat loss for Atlantic Salmon populations, in three key sections of the Dunk River: Southeast branch, Main branch, and Southwest branch.

Through this project BBEMA will restore and reconnect suitable spawning habitats for Atlantic Salmon populations (within the Dunk River sub watershed) through instream enhancement and mitigation of invasive plant species.

In 2022 post-tropical storm Fiona resulted in extensive damage to the vegetative buffers along the tributaries of the Bedeque Bay Watershed. This left a substantial amount of dead and downed wood within the waterways. The opening of canopies and clearings has led to the extensive spread of many invasive plants along the banks and within the streams themselves.

Invasive species invasions represent a major threat to biodiversity across PEI and have become an increasingly significant stewardship challenge along our streams and waterways. Riparian invasive plants often grow in dense monocultures resulting in negative impacts to nesting, cover and breeding habitat for fish and wildlife. If invasive plants aren’t controlled, they can form dense mats of vegetation that block sunlight and prevent native plants from growing. Bittersweet nightshade grows well in wet environments and has the potential to choke out small, slow-flowing waterways -prevent oxygen from reaching fish and other wildlife by covering the water’s surface. If not removed this semi-aquatic can have negative impacts on stream ecosystems, including reduced biological diversity, complete blockage of waterways, coverage of water’s surface and preventing oxygen from reaching fish and other aquatic organisms, reduced transport of nutrients from decreased waterflows and shallow root systems can increase erosion, causing higher surface runoff, which increases stream sediment.

This project will concentrate on enhancing instream/adjacent habitats for Atlantic Salmon along a 1.5 km stretch of the main branch of the Dunk River. Species targeted for removal include  bittersweet nightshade, wild cucumber and watercress.

Additional activities will include:

– Stabilization of stream banks post plant removal through brush matting and installation of jute to reduce the potential for erosion and further sedimentation in streams.

– Opening of waterways – removal of in stream blockages (fallen trees/debris from heavy weather events) that are currently acting as barriers to fish movement preventing fish from moving to cooler waters when summer temperatures increase.

– Riparian plantings to replace vegetated buffers with 500 native trees and shrubs to further protect these tributaries by providing shade as well as decreasing potential for invasive species dense monoculture regrowth.