Winter damage 'average' at P.E.I. National Park

A couple hundred aging trees blew over at the Cavendish campground, but it looks to be an average winter for damage and erosion at P.E.I. National Park, says Parks Canada.

Bill Courtney, asset manager for P.E.I. National Park, said crews have been surveying the beaches and campgrounds around Cavendish, Brackley, Stanhope and Greenwich as the tourist season approaches.

He said crews have begun cleaning up between 100 and 200 trees that blew over in Cavendish.

'Recycling the product'

"That sounds like a large number but it's a heavily wooded campground. Alot of these trees that blew down were white spruce near the end of their lives," he said.

"We make firewood out of what's been damaged so we're recycling the product and anywhere that has wide open spaces after a blow down we'll replant trees that are part of the original Acadian forest of Prince Edward Island.

Courtney said the coastal erosion was minor this year.

'Natural process'

"We benefited from a large ice pack in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that minimizes wave damage to the shoreline. But there is a certain amount of erosion every year. That's to be expected and that's a natural process."

Courtney said there was also $2,000 worth of damage at Greenwich, which includes staircases leading to the beach. He said some straircases are brought in for the winter, but others remain to give people access to the beach 12 months a year.

"This is a pretty regular winter, nothing extreme," Courtney said. "Back in 2010, we had a large storm in December. That was an extreme storm but this past winter was pretty average."

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