Hurricane Fiona highlights the dangers of coastal erosion

The effects of climate change are being felt up and down the Maritimes' coastlines, in particular on Prince Edward Island, where Hurricane Fiona revealed just how vulnerable the island is to coastal erosion.

Still, some are working to slow it down.

On Tuesday, crews near Stratford, P.E.I., were working to repair, reinforce, and winterize the Island's living shoreline. It’s what’s called soft armour -- helping to slow erosion at the water’s edge.

“We decided that this was one of the perfect sites to put in a demonstration project, proof of concept, to really start getting people thinking about living shorelines,” said Charlotte Large, the project coordinator at PEI Watershed Alliance. “And also seeing how they work.”

A living shoreline involves using soft materials -- like hay, logs, and branches -- to improve coastal resiliency for the first three years, while native plants planted in the area take hold along the shore and reinforce it.

“Those natural processes that you’re bringing back to your coastline can handle things like wave energy, sea level rise more effectively over the long term,” said Large. “Nature knows what it’s doing and we’re doing our best to bring those processes back, and overall you’ll have a healthier coast.”

The site near Stratford is one of three where the proof of concept projects were installed in the summer of 2021. Another site sits on the Charlottetown side of the Hillsborough River.

It’s an alternative to the more common hard armour -- things like rock and cement walls -- which you can see across the island, including on the Charlottetown waterfront.

P.E.I. is particularly vulnerable to erosion, so much so the University of Prince Edward Island’s Climate Research Lab actively monitors coastal erosion using drone photography at 75 sites across the island.

“We can then look and see how much the coastline is either receding or growing,” said Adam Fenech, the director of the UPEI Climate Research Lab. “Unfortunately, in most places that we look, it’s disappearing and disappearing at rates that are now quite significant.”

They’ve been taking measurements since 2014.

The island is a giant sandbar, made up of sand and sandstone, meaning there is no indigenous hard stone, so there’s little to keep the shoreline from wearing away.

“Coastal erosion is a natural process, and has been going on for thousands of years,” said Fenech. “The best way to protect yourself against it is not to build so darn close to the shore, and that’s been my main message time and time again.”

Everyone CTV spoke to Tuesday stressed that no coastal armouring can stop erosion. It can hold it back for a time, but in the end, the sea always wins.