Building back the beaches on P.E.I. after post-tropical storm Fiona

CHARLOTTETOWN -

Stay off the dunes, that’s the message of a recently released video, part of a joint campaign between the Island Nature Trust, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Parks Canada.

In the wake of post-tropical storm Fiona some sections of Prince Edward Island's North Shore lost 10 metres or 30 feet, totally demolishing dunes.

Kerry-Lynn Atkinson, the land acquisition manager for the Island Nature Trust, said visitors and residents need to stay away and give them time to heal.

“There will be a dune there in the future. We’ve had dunes along Prince Edward Island for centuries, and they’re going to continue to be here,” said Atkinson. “They will regrow, but we need to give them time and space.”

The three groups are asking people to keep at least 10 metres away from where the dunes are now when walking on the beach.

The dunes regrow naturally, starting as baby dunes and reforming as sand collects on debris and grasses take root.

In many places you can’t even see the dunes any longer, however that doesn’t mean they’re not there.

“Plant stems of the marram grass that actually hold those dunes in place, those are still existing, and those can grow for metres underneath the sand,” explained Atkinson. “Even though you don’t see a foredune, or a baby dune, starting to be created on a beach, all of that process is happening under the sediment.”

In some places, the landscape has been so drastically changed it needs to be rebuilt. Pounding surf undercut the road in Dalvay, P.E.I. That’s now being reinforced with a buried revetment, a natural stone structure covered in sand.

“We’re hoping that, this fall, we’ll be able to implement some vegetation into that area,” said Hailey Paynter, a landscape ecologist at P.E.I. National Park. “Although it’s not going to function like a normal sand dune, we’re hoping that by encouraging that area to revegetate, it will provide some meaningful habitat in the short term.”

Parks Canada said the revetment was required to ensure the road could be safely used this year.

Work is ongoing to make repairs on access infrastructure after Fiona, but the slower natural processes that allow beaches to recover may take years.