PEI AWP Steering Committee Conducts Fall Tour to Various Projects

PEI AWP Steering Committee Conducts Fall Tour to Various Projects

On Friday, November 8, 2024, members of the AgriWatershed Partnership Steering Committee attended a tour of 5 on-farm projects supported by the PEI AgriWatershed Partnership. The first project visited was a combination field trial of a streambank stabilization technique called a vegetated mechanically stabilized embankment or MSE wall. The project was conducted with the cooperation of Dunk River Farms, PEI Department of Agriculture, East Prince Agri-Environmental Association and Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association. The works included a combination of standard rock armoured rock chute to control erosion at a crucial outlet to the many erosion control structures on the property and a trial of the MSE walls to address severe streambank sloughing.

The second stop on the tour was at Diamondale Farms in Milton to view an excellent example of a sediment catchment structure supported by the AgriWatershed Partnership Outlet Support Program. The erosion control system installed above the sediment pond was installed under the Canada-PEI Stewardship program and construction was designed and supervised by Kurtis Rooke, Soil and Water Engineer-in- Training with the PEI Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture section.

Third stop on the tour was a brief visit to 2021 AWP merit-based soil conservation project done in cooperation with the PEI Department of Agriculture and Power Produce Inc. of Elliotvale. In addition to that site we visited Circle H Farms merit-based project done in 2022.

The last stop on the tour was Shady Lane Farms of Vernon River at the site of a wood-chip bioreactor installed as a demonstration project in cooperation with Pisquid River Enhancement Group, Morell River Management Cooperative and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

An MSE wall constructed to stabilize a streambank at Dunk River Farms. The original bank (right photo)