Parks Canada says it is seeing encouraging signs of dune regrowth in Prince Edward Island National Park — and a few of the credit score goes to beachgoers who keep off them.
Kerry-Lynn Atkinson, a panorama ecologist with Parks Canada, mentioned marram grass, seaside pea and sea rocket are all beginning to re-establish alongside the child dunes after harm from post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022.
“Their rhizomes, their roots, they all start to kind of hold, to stand together. I think of them as like a spider web or a net of some sort,” she mentioned.
“And then as those plants get bigger, the sand that’s deposited onto the beach starts to build up behind those plants. And it seems like such a small, intricate process, and it really is. But that’s how we get the start of a great big huge dune like you’ll see out in Greenwich.”
Sand dunes assist shield P.E.I. from the results of coastal erosion. Atkinson mentioned it’ll nonetheless be at least a decade earlier than most of the panorama recovers from Fiona.
She mentioned the dunes at Greenwich, on P.E.I.’s North Shore close to St. Peters Bay, have made essentially the most progress, however in addition they have been the least broken of the 65 kilometres of shoreline within the nationwide park.
The seashores at Cavendish and Brackley noticed essentially the most harm.Â
Atkinson mentioned these dunes see essentially the most foot site visitors, and that may sluggish recovery.
Parks Canada is appreciative of the individuals who keep off the dunes, she mentioned.
“We put in a lot of effort to help to conserve this sensitive ecosystem,” Atkinson mentioned. “So things like authorized dune-crossing locations, compliance personnel on staff, physical barriers, educational signage and full dune closures, those are all part of the enhanced enforcements that have been put into place to protect this ecosystem.”
