Welcome to the Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group website.
Our community group was formed to preserve and restore the health of the Hunter River Watershed in North Central Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Canada. We address ecological issues so that the watershed can continue to enhance and support the communities and the local farming, fishing and tourism industries.
Click here to see the progress of our work-crew this summer
Announcements
Spring work-day a great success
With the help of the Blue Heron Sea Cadets, we planted 250 trees in a wetland on the corner of the Line Road and Route 13 in Mayfield. The site was perfect and the weather couldn't have been better. Afterwards, we had a barbecue courtesty of the cadets. This wetland is an excellent location for further planting during this and subsequent years. See the 'Photos' page for some pictures.
posted June 6, 2009
Welcome to our new Supervisor
We welcome Brian Gauthier as our work-crew supervisor for the summer. Living in North Rustico, Brian's qualifications in fish and forestry make him an ideal supervisor for our 2009 work program. We are now waiting to hear from the provincial government, who have reduced our funding, to see if they will come up with the new funding that they have already promised us.
posted May 22, 2009
Land Use Commission looking for your views
The Commission on the Land and Local Governance is looking for your views. Their website has more details. We have requested to give our input to the commission, so please let us know if you have any concerns you'd like us to raise on your behalf. I have made a personal submission, which can be found here.
posted March 22, 2009
Earth Day photography exhibition in Charlottetown
An exhibition in Charlottetown for Earth Day, which has a local connection. See here for more details.
Town Hall on Water, hosted by Shawn Murphy
On March 18th, a lively discussion and some eye-opening presentations took place in The Guild. The subject was water. Click here to find out what happened.
posted March 19, 2009
Looking for a Summer Job?
Our Watershed Group is looking for a supervisor and three workers for the summer. The workers must be full-time students age 16 or over, who are returning to full-time education in the fall. The supervisor must be a university or college student who is returning to school in the fall, preferably a student of biology or a related subject. The supervisor position is for 10 weeks and the workers are for 8 weeks. Please e-mail or mail us with a resume if you are interested. More details can be found here.
posted March 19, 2009
New Buffer Zone regulations
New buffer zone rules have been created. Farmers who are still following the old rules will not be penalized this year. Here is a sheet explaining the new rules.
To find out more about buffer zone regulation contact the Watercourse Alteration Supervisor at (902)368-5052.
posted March 30, 2009
Walk For Water
This year, students at L'école Saint-Augustine and Gulf Shore Consolidated schools marked World Water Day by walking in solidarity with children in Africa. With the support of the Wheatley River and Hunter-Clyde watershed groups, in partnership with Farmers Helping Farmers and the Sierra Club, they took part in a "Walk for Water" on Friday morning, March 27th on the wooded trails at Gulf Shore School in North Rustico. See more information.
posted March 15, 2009
Presentation to the government - looking for more funding
In January, your watershed group joined with a number of other watershed groups to make a presentation to the government. We stressed the importance of watershed planning and management, and made a case for using the beverage deposit money to fund watershed activities. The presentation was well received. This presentation is one of the initiatives that has come about because of the formation of the new watershed coalition. The full text can be found here.
ALUS Program launched - farmers are paid to take land out of production
The Alternative Land Use Services program has been launched by the provincial government. As of 16th January 2009, farmers and landowners can apply to be reimbursed for leaving ecologically valuable land uncultivated. Here is the brochure.
First Stewardship Plan published
During the winter months, Michael Willcock undertook community consultations and produced a first Stewardship Plan for the watershed. This is a document which we will be building on over the coming years. The document can be viewed here. It is a large document and will take a minute to open with a high-speed connection, don't try it with dial up!
Trees In Trust
This new PEI environmental organisation has been set up to raise funds for charitable land trusts, including the Island Nature Trust, so that they can save old growth forest. By making a donation, you can secure a mapped piece of forest forever. It makes a great gift. http://www.treesintrust.com/
Need any trees planting or your brook clearing?
We are looking for places to work next summer. Let us know if you would like some trees planting or if you have a length of brook on which we could work. We can get 3 foot tall trees from the nursery in various acadian species.
More news...
The Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group (HCWG) is a community run group that is focused on the well-being of the Hunter or Clyde River in the New Glasgow, Rustico and Hunter River area. Our goals are to improve the health of the watershed’s ecosystem, encourage community involvement and support the local economy. Our group started in 2000. Currently we raise funds through local memberships and from provincial and federal funding programs.
Students and volunteers perform fieldwork during the summer months. The work consists of tree planting, building brush mats, clearing debris, water testing and remedial work on culverts. Other projects are based on a site assessment such as rock pools for fishways and spawning sites. We also attend public events to educate the public, build bat boxes and swallow boxes and undertake other tasks as the needs arise.
Educational work includes producing newsletters, presentations to schools and other community groups, sitting on various committees and holding meetings in the community. We usually have a part-time technician working for us who does water sampling, GIS (mapping) work, education programs, report preparation and liaison with other environmental groups and projects.
If you would like to get involved, contact someone on our who's who page.
Click here to see what was achieved in 2008 and previous years.
Minutes
The minutes of previous meetings are available here.
Membership of the group is $10 per year for an individual and $25 for a family. Corporate and municipal membership is $100 per year. The names of corporate members are displayed on this website.
We have put together a page of links to relevant PEI and Canadian government sites, other watershed groups and other relevant information.
The Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group and all people who live in, work in, or visit the area would like to thank our corporate sponsors for their generous support:
Maritime Construction
Outside Expeditions
Highfield Construction
Toombs Plumbing & Heating
Blue Bay Farms Ltd
R W Woodworking
Hunter River Pharmacy
RBC Royal Bank
Chez Yvonne's Restaurant
St. Lawrence Motel
Cavendish Tourist Mart
Anne's Windy Poplars Cottages
North Rustico Home Hardware
Rustico Auto Service
PEI Preserve Co Ltd
New Glasgow Lobster Suppers
Gerard Blanchard General Trucking
Rosewood Residence
Community of Hunter River
Atlantic Agritech Inc
New Glasgow WI
Stella Maris Credit Union
The Country House Inn
New Glasgow Inn
Without the support of the PEI Wildlife Conservation Fund, the Provincial Government and the Federal Government, we would be unable to undertake our summer work program and we thank these organizations on behalf of all directors, employees, members and residents.
We also thank the many individual and family members for their continued support.
The bylaws of the Hunter-Clyde Watershed group can be found here.
Meetings of the group follow the Democratic Rules of Order, which can be found here.
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