P.E.I. watershed groups prepare for climate change by counting bugs

P.E.I. watershed groups are monitoring the bug population in their rivers and streams, part of their work to rebuild the population of Atlantic salmon, and one of the things they're watching for is the impact of climate change.

"A bug survey, or a benthic invertebrate survey, is basically a sampling of the insects that live in the bottom of streams," said Kris Hunter, director of programs for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

"That's really useful because that is the basis of the food web. It tells us how healthy the stream is."

Hunter was on P.E.I. for a training session involving two watershed groups — from the Souris area and Prince County — and the damage from post-tropical storm Fiona was top of mind. 

"Our biggest concern, we've seen it quite recently, is this change in flow and rainfall. That has a really big impact on the streams," Hunter said.

"The floods, and then contrary the droughts, they're really affecting the temperature, they affect how much sediment is in the stream, and they actually change the whole structure of the stream."

 
"The things that live in that stream and depend on that, that's really problematic. That's affecting their homes," Hunter said.

"It's certainly something that we have to prepare for, and try as much as possible to climate proof our streams."

Climate proof streams

Hunter said climate proofing a stream involves looking at the land around the waterway, and making sure it is protected from run-off. 

"For these bigger flow events like Fiona, that's going to require some careful thinking, and we're working with experts around the world to figure out how best to go about doing that," Hunter said.

"That's everything from improving infrastructure, to actually changing the way we do some of the in-stream restoration. To make sure that we're holding water in the droughts, and then allowing that energy of the big discharge to dissipate, so it's not causing damage in the stream."

This is the fourth year of the bug survey for the Souris and Area Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation.

"This is an indicator activity, so if we see certain bugs that we're collecting, then we know that our watershed is relatively healthy, or it's continuing to be healthy for our salmon," said co-watershed co-ordinator Keila Miller.

"If there's lots of big predators that we find in the bugs that we're collecting, then there's a lot of fish food for salmon in various life stages, and brook trout too."

With the quality of the water as it is, the bugs are going to be there​​​​—Keila Miller, Souris and Area Branch of the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation 

 
Miller said they have been seeing the bigger predator bugs, which is good news for the watershed group. 

"We've been doing a lot of work in our watersheds to make sure the habitat is good," Miller said.

Storm damage

Miller said her group is also feeling the impact from the post-tropical storm, including many downed trees in the rivers and streams where the salmon spawn. 

"We have 27 watersheds and we haven't been in all of them, but we've been in some key ones that have Atlantic salmon and they've been decimated," Miller said. 

"Some of them are unrecognizable in places, and a lot of our monitoring areas where we do a lot of fall monitoring, we have to do a lot of remediation work." 

Miller said the salmon will return in the next three to four weeks.

"Hopefully we can punch a hole through, make sure the salmon can come up and spawn in the fall like they're supposed to, in their home rivers," Miller said.

"Atlantic salmon are a species of concern federally so they're protected. So we want to make sure that they can get up, lay their eggs, and reproduce. And if they can't do that, then we're not doing our job."