Watershed group aims to draw public back to nature with walking trails

Following efforts to remove silt from Wright's Creek, a watershed group in East Royalty is now hard at work carving out new trails in the Charlottetown area, to help reconnect the local community with nature.

'It's a beautiful natural area'

Sam Juric · CBC News · Posted: Aug 06, 2019 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 6, 2019

Crews in Charlottetown are moving soil to create the new trails. (Samantha Juric/CBC)

Wright's Creek runs under St. Peter's Road, just outside the Charlottetown bypass. The water system encompasses a series of ponds and streams.

The way to bring the community into the area is by building trails.— John Andrew

The Wright's Creek Watershed Environmental Committee was formed in 2005 by locals to address the creek's poor state, said John Andrew, the organization's co-chair.

"We did a lot of silt removal from Andrew's pond, which is the main pond along the system. Once we had that under control, we started to look at bringing the community into the area — and the way to bring the community into the area is by building trails," Andrew said.

'More work to do'

With funding from the city, the group has managed to build several trails throughout the community, Andrew said. Much of the trail system has so far been concentrated in the Andrew's pond area and Barbour's pond, which was built in the 1950s.

"It's a beautiful natural area," Andrew said.

If you have trails and people come to walk on them they start to appreciate the parts of nature that are here in Charlottetown.— John Andrew

"There's a beaver population here, there's various wildlife and … we've got signage along the trails to show what people might see along as they walk the trails," Andrew said.

"We're still adding to the trails, there's more work we want to do. We're hoping to have a trail that will encircle the upper Andrew's pond," he said.

Planning for more trails

Part of the group's plan is to carve out a two-kilometre trail which would snake around Andrew's pond, he said.

The Wright's Creek Watershed Environmental Committee was formed in 2005 by locals to address the creek's poor state, says John Andrew, the organization's co-chair. (Nicole Williams/CBC)

As the area continues to see development, Andrew said, the group is hoping developers will allocate part of the land along the creek so that the group can create additional trails for Islanders to enjoy.

Building trails is an important facet in local conservation and monitoring water quality in the system, Andrew said.

"If you have trails and people come to walk on them they start to appreciate the parts of nature that are here in Charlottetown," he said, "And then they become protective, after they realize, 'Hey, this is important.'"