**Observation by Hailey Blacquiere:
There is a small inlet that I have lived by for all my life. It is designated as a brackish marsh now; but was once described as a “large pond”, large enough to paddle around in a canoe and to play a full game of hockey on in the winter. I’ve realized over the years that the “pond” seems to be changing in size and becoming much more channelized/shallow in spots. This “pond” definitely does not have the water mass or depth that it once did. Sedimentation has been increasing and with that the stability and biodiversity in the area has decreased as well.
Historically this body of water was not cut off from the estuary; it was, however, cut off when the Grand Pere Point road was built and has been pinched off through an undersized culvert ever since.
It is not clearly identified when the road was built; however, aerial photo records show the road in place in 1968 (see Figure 1). Based on this photo, we know there has been a lack of abundant flow for at least fifty four years, and likely longer (Government PEI, 2020).
This ecological edge was never a pond at all; it was a large dip in the shoreline/ natural watershed drainage basin leading to the estuary that was cut off to create a semi-contained waterbody (Mulrennan, M.E., & Bussieres, V. 2018). As mentioned above, there is a small wood-based culvert present. Water comes in from the estuary side of the road when the tide is high but is cut off when tide is low due to the culvert being angled creating a hanging culvert on the interior waterbody. A hanging culvert is an issue here as it impedes fish passage and it does not allow for the sediment build-up to escape in any amount from the area (MacPherson et. al. 2012).
As a “man-made pond”, the waterbody has taken on the role as a buffer between the estuary and the land, as a sediment catch and drainage basin (see Figure 2). This use has been fulfilled and is still required, but the capacity in which it had originally been able to handle has been depleted. In addition, the need is only becoming more prominent with new growth and development in the area paired with one-in-a-hundred-year storms that are hurdling into the future at faster intervals (Simonovic & Peck 2013).
Human factors have impacted this space greatly and there is a potential need to intervene to maintain the current uses and function, while also still catering to wildlife needs, and natural processes.
References
Government Prince Edward Island, (2020). Internal Forestry Mapping system (esri).
- Link not shareable as it is only accessible on gov. Servers.
MacPherson, L.M. ,Sullivan, M.G., Foote, L.A. & Stevens, C.E. (2012) Effects of Culverts on Stream Fish Assemblages in the Alberta Foothills, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 32:3, 480-490, DOI: 10.1080/02755947.2012.686004
Mulrennan, M.E., & Bussieres, V. (2018). Social-ecological resilience in indigenous coastal edge contexts. Ecology & Society, 23(3), 18 pp
Simonovic, S.P.& Peck, A. (2013). Dynamic Resilience to Climate Change Caused Natural Disasters in Coastal Megacities Quantification Framework. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Western Ontario British Journal of Environment & Climate Change 3(3): 378-401t https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Slobodan-Simonovic/publication/271264000_Dynamic_Resilience_to_Climate_Change_Caused_Natural_Disasters_in_Coastal_Megacities_Quantification_Framework/links/61559becab3c1324134d0f54/Dynamic-Resilience-to-Climate-Change-Caused-Natural-Disasters-in-Coastal-Megacities-Quantification-Framework.pdf
