Background on Island Trails
Prince Edward Island Trails, Inc. (Island Trails) was established in 1994. The development of the woodland hiking trails component began in about 2003. Serious planning began for that trail in 2005, and permits, funding, and construction took place over 2008 to 2009. Six woodland trails (Black Marsh, Winter River, Gairloch Road, Forest Hill, Boughton River, Breadalbane) followed a similar but much accelerated course. Their construction was completed in 2010. Subsequently, Bonshaw, Strathgartney, Forestview and Selkirk Forest Walking Trail were added to the Island Trails network of hiking, cycling and equestrian trails. All but Bonshaw and Strathgartney are maintained by Island Trails.
When the covid-19 pandemic struck, much like everything else, Island Trails activity was slowed. As the restrictions from the covid 19 began to ease, the trails were the most frequented they had ever been. Website traffic had doubled in 2020-2021 and more people seemed to be looking for opportunities to get out of their homes and out into nature. The future was looking bright.
Fiona
Hurricane Fiona was the costliest and most intense post tropical cyclone in Canadian History. Fiona made landfall near Whitehead, Nova Scotia on the morning of September 24 as a recently transitioned extratropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. Environment Canada assessed Fiona’s maximum sustained winds at the time of landfall to be around 105 mph (169 km/h). A peak wind gust of 111 mph (179 km/h) was recorded in Arisaig, Nova Scotia with peak gusts in Prince Edward Island recorded at East Point at 93 MPH or 150 km/hr.
Fiona affected the four provinces of Atlantic Canada, as well as Quebec. The storm caused major flooding in southeastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, northeastern Nova Scotia, and southern Newfoundland. Ninety five percent of Prince Edward Island customers were without power and thousands of trees were knocked down and uprooted with PEI losing 40% of our woodlands and destroying our trail systems.
Teacup Rock, a rock formation and local tourist attraction on the coast near Thunder Cove, Prince Edward Island, was destroyed after Hurricane Fiona struck. Fiona also caused severe erosion to the province’s dune system, particularly within the Prince Edward Island National Park. (source)
Robinsons Island was one of the community favorites in the Island trail system that saw extensive damage during Fiona. The causeway to the Island was built in 1956 and totally destroyed by wind and waves during the storm. The province decided not to rebuild after the damages occurred. See- Broken road to Robinsons Island being removed rather than rebuilt– Article in CTV
The damage to the PEI Trail Network was extensive. Islanders and tourists who enjoyed using the trails, especially during Covid 19, were no longer able due to safety concerns and the trails had essentially been completely covered in fallen trees.
Post Fiona
Island Trails volunteers understood the importance of the Trail Network to Islanders and tourists and began to work on opening up the trails immediately after the storm. Between October 2022 and March 2023 over 1300 volunteer hours were recorded which amounts to over $66,000 of in-kind contribution by Island Trails volunteers.
Bryson Guptill, a longstanding member of the Island Trails board, reported the first of Island Trails 9 Trail systems to be tackled after Fiona was Winter River. Being one of the more popular trails, located about five kilometers north of Charlottetown, it seemed the most logistically appropriate trail to start with. The damage was almost indescribable. Bryson reported “The trail was completely covered in downed trees which hid where the trail once was. It took a GPS to actually find the trail, then volunteers had to climb over trees, which would take hours, to mark out where the trail would be with tape. The blockage of trees was so extensive in some areas that you may be able to get in a little ways then you’ll find you can’t get by without actually, literally crawling over or under the trees, so it’s very difficult and that can be disorienting.” The following are a few images in the very early stages of the clean up.
Clean up Begins/Funding Required
Within 6 months of Fiona, volunteers had put in a conservative estimate of 1,321 hours.
After months of hard work and heavy lifting, Island Trails recognized that to have the trails open for use in the spring of 2023 they would require assistance.
An application was submitted to the Canadian Red Cross’s Provincial Financial Assistance Program to continue with opening the trails. A Project Coordinator was hired in April to oversee the project and a temporary trail crew and contractors were hired to work on Boughton River, Forestview and Breadalbane trails.
In the fall of 2022, The Government of Canada announced support for post Fiona through the Hurricane Fiona Recovery Fund coordinated by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).
“Our thoughts are with all Canadians dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. There is still much work to be done in the days and months ahead to clean up and rebuild, but I know Atlantic Canadians and Quebecers will continue to be there for each other, and so will the Government of Canada. This new Fund, announced today, will help people and local communities move forward on the path to recovery.”
The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.
Winter River Trail – 6.8 km
Winter River was the first trail to be assessed post Fiona by Bryson Guptil. It was first punched through by volunteers using approximately 400 hours earlier in the year. Work was started to clear back debris ten feets on either side of the trail on July 20, 2023 beginning at the intersection of the purple and blue trails. Sawsquatch contractors moved forward with the goal of completing the North Loop and as of July 21 they cleared back 0.6 km of trail. At month’s end, the full trail had been reopened with a 4 ft width and 1 km to full width. By September 30th, the full 6.8 km of trail had been opened to full width with a total of 293 contracted hours followed by another 35 over the winter.
In the fall and into winter months until weather forced them out of the woods, crews spent 35 hours cleaning up fallen trees along the Winter River trail. In addition, Board member Bryson Guptill and Island Trails signage committee chair Sue Norton volunteered another 150 hours chainsawing mostly on the Winter River trail with an objective of dropping fallen trees to the forest floor to speed decomposition and encourage new growth along all trail segments on this trail. This work will continue through March, 2024 and extend into the summer and beyond, as required.
Boughton River Nature Trail – 8.9 km
Damage to the Boughton Trail was extensive. Initially it was punched through by volunteers in late 2022 taking approximately 265 volunteer hours.
As of July 10 the trail was entered with the goal of cleaning all learners and other hazards from the 4 foot path. Both the Dock Station and Wilbur Creek Loops were completed by July 17. The Ravine Loop was started with the new mandate of clearing the trail width of all hazards from 10 feet on both sides. On July 21, 0.9 km of trail had been completed on this loop averaging 300 m a day.
By September 15, 2024, 7.7 km of trail had been completed taking 358 hours of contracted work so far to date. Crews continued to work on completing the remaining trail with widening and wiper sniping. In total, 660 feet of Boardwalk was constructed to repair and replace what had been damaged. By the end of September, the Boughton Trail was opened to full width with a total of 613 hours of contracted work.
Forest Hill Hiking and Equestrian Trail – 7.8 km
First contracted under Forestry’s budget, the forestry roads at Forest Hill were opened by July 11, 2023. This included the upper section of Docs Marsh Loop, Dane’s Road and the Matheson Road covering a 2.3 km section of the overall trail system.
Clean up continued through the summer months and by September 2, 2024, 3.2 km were opened to 4 ft width and 4.5 km were opened to full width. By October 13th, only .3 km of the 7.8km was not fully completed to full width.
Forest Hill was fully opened to full width by the end of October, 2024 totalling 658.5 hours of contracted work. Our second highest amount of hours required of all 9 trails. Another 26 hours of work was done through the winter months on clearing brush from along the trail.
Forestview Trail – 6.5 km
Forestview trail luckily had very little damage after Fiona. A total of 85 volunteer hours was enough to have these trails passable. The trails were inspected in late July.
Due to these trails now being prone to springtime flooding, approximately 300 ft of total boardwalk may be required.
Breadalbane Nature Trail – 6.5 km
Breadalbane trail was initially cleared for walking (4 ft width) using 245 volunteer hours by July, 2023. Contracted work was needed to clear hanging trees and debris from the back of the trail. This began in early September and crews worked quickly, opening 3.5 km to full width in just 2 weeks. In October, crews worked at widening the width of the trail that ran along the Confederation trail, completing Breadalbane with a total of 72 hours of contracted work. Post Fiona more vulnerable trees came down from fall winds which brought the crews back for another 18 hours of clean up through the winter.
Gairloch Road Trail – 7 km
Eighty- eight volunteer hours were committed to clearing the Gairloch trail. Reported in July, two signposts along with signage put in place during a volunteer day hosted by Stantec were stolen from the trail. As a result, new map signs as well as a new trailhead sign were required.
Bridge repair work was completed on the trail in July requiring only 6 hours of work. Two of the bridges required new railings and a third required leveling. Cycling PEI has helped to widen parts of the trail.
All 7 km of trail was open to full width by August 19th and reported in good condition. Signage is still required and 2 sign posts must still be replaced. Cycling PEI has been helping with work along the trail to improve conditions for cycling by covering roots with fill and developing banked turns. Gairloch trail clean up took a total of 304.5 contracted hours into the fall and another 35 over the winter.
Dromore Woodlands Trail – 14 km
Being our longest trail, Dromore required the most clean up. Volunteers initially committed 50 hours to clearing this trail.
In July, flagging was completed on the North Loop requiring approximately 100m or original trail to be re-routed due to very extensive damage through a swampy section. While this was being worked on, a contractor continued work on another section of the loop with a team of employees working to connect the two. The loop was finally punched through by July 14 requiring 179 hours in 2 weeks to open up just 2 km out of 14 km to four foot width.
By the beginning of September, 9.1 km was open to a four foot width with 5.1 km fully open. From there, trail widening was the focus. By the end of October, the full 14 km was open to full width.
Overall 660 feet of boardwalk had to be built and 8 sign posts installed. One new chair was constructed as a replacement on the North Loop.
New directional signs will still be required and installed going forward. Work on the Dromore Trail required over double the hours of any of our other trails totalling 1563 contracted hours. Pictures show the stages of one of the many bridge repairs. Through the winter crews spent another 140 hours on cleaning and clearing brush until weather forced them to pause.
Selkirk Forest Walking Trail – 6.6 km
The trail was initially cleared to 4 ft width mainly by volunteers over a six month period starting in November 2022 totalling 70 hours. The work required by contractors was mainly to widen the trail from 4ft to full width through cutting back fallen trees and whipper snipping. The trail was open to full width by September 1st and required 481 hours of contracted work. Over the winter months, crews continued with cleanup with another 14 hours of moving brush and clearing brush away from the trail.
Long time Island Trails volunteers Sara Deveau and Helene Blanchete were very excited to host the Triple Trail Trek in October after having to cancel the event in 2022. The TTT involved hiking all three trails at your own pace. Selkirk and Gairloch trails were both ready to accommodate the event which finished at the Lord Selkirk Campground.
Black Marsh – 3.5km
Black Marsh was our most spared trail requiring only 20 volunteer hours to reopen the trail to pre Fiona condition.
November 2023 – March 2024
Island Trails manages 68 km of trail spread out over 9 different trail systems across the Island. After the trails were open to full width, crews worked over the winter months to remove more fallen debris and clean up alongside the trails which required another 748 hours of paid time. New chainsaws were purchased, a course on chainsaw safety, another on chainsaw maintenance and a first aid course took place between November 2023 and March 2024.
Summary
“Hurricane Fiona was one of the biggest and most severe weather events to ever hit our Province, and is something that some Islanders and local businesses continue to deal with over a year later.”
– Bloyce Thomspon, Minister of Justice and Public Safety and Chair of the Major Incident Readiness Team, in an After Action Review by the Provincial Govt
Fiona Fast Facts
- 68 km of Trails to Clean and Repair
- 1,800 Volunteer Hours
- 4,743 Hours by Contractors
- 480 Administrative Hours
- 1,150 feet of constructed boardwalk
- 9 employees
- Fiona Highest wind gusts 150 km/hr
- 95% of Prince Edward Island lost power
We cannot thank all those who contributed to this project enough.
The work was immense and although our trails will never be the same, watching them become “busy” again is an absolute pleasure.
Island Trails would not exist without our VOLUNTEERS. We thank them wholeheartedly (past and present) for their continued dedication.
We thank our CONTRACTORS and PROJECT COORDINATOR for many hours in the hot sun, rainy, cold weather and everything in between. Thank you for opening us all the way back up.
Thank you to the ROTARY CLUB who helped fund this work and training.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we thank OUR FUNDING PARTNERS, most notably ACOA for their massive contribution. You enabled this to happen.
Island Trails now looks to complete the final phase of the project by replacing the last of damaged boardwalks which will be completed in 2024. From there as Island Trails moves out of the Fiona clean-up phase, the organization will turn its focus to the future and look to “Build Back Better”. We look forward to brighter days ahead.
