Parks Canada to protect various species at risk in Atlantic Canada

Parks Canada is drawing a mitigation plan for species at risk within the P.E.I. National Park as it works to protect them.

In an interview with The Guardian on Jan. 16, Lindsey Burke, Parks Canada resource manager officer, explained the multi-species action plan.

Parks Canada plans to protect approximately 40 species listed as Schedule One under the Species at Risk Act and living inside P.E.I. National Park.

It includes species like piping plover, northern myotis, little brown myotis, bat species, Gulf of St. Lawrence aster, beach pinweeds and endangered plant species, Burke said.

“If piping plovers are protected, that will hopefully offer protection for other shorebirds,” she said.

The work

Currently, Parks Canada takes on a lot of different recovery measures within the park, Burke said.

“Every year, we monitor piping plovers. Some of the work we’re currently doing is a lot of knowledge and data gathering,” she said.

Parks Canada is working on habitat restoration within P.E.I. National Park, Burke added.

“Out on our dunes, areas where people walk in the dunes, we try to do restoration there that will ultimately protect the breeding habitat for some of those species at risk,” she said.

Challenges

Beaches and areas with high traffic will make the plan challenging to accomplish, Burke said.

“They are beautiful places to visit. But if shorebirds are nesting on some of our more popular beaches, it can be a challenge because we want to end up closing those off to visitor traffic,” she said.

Burke would like to see a measurable increase in either population numbers or in protected habitats for those species.

“Another important thing within the plan is generating greater public awareness of these species. Having education and outreach with the public is another big component of the plan,” she said.