Environment

Rejuvenation of Summerside fishing pond underway

Rejuvenation of Summerside pond begins.

After decades of deterioration, a former angling pond in Summerside is getting a new lease on life. An excavator has been working on the project this week, digging out the pond, clearing scrub from around the perimeter and shoring up its banks. The project is an initiative of the Bedeque Bay Environmental Management Association (BBEMA). Tracy Brown, executive director of BBEMA, was on hand Tuesday morning as the heavy machinery went about its work. It’s good to see the work start in earnest, said Brown. “It’ll be nice too just to have this open again and to have it look like a pond,” she added. The pond is off Notre Dame Street, near the intersection with Greenwood Drive. Many years ago it was the community’s source of fresh water ice in the winter, and a popular fishing hole in the summer. However, the pond had deteriorated over the years and, until last fall, was full of trash and overgrown with problematic plant species. BBEMA had an old dam taken out last year and let the pond drain to facilitate the improvements. Brown said that over the next several weeks the work to the pond itself will be completed, as will the installation of the fish ladder and a trail around the property. Next spring, they intend to install butterfly gardens, benches, a wheelchair-accessible fishing platform and a small bridge that will span a rear section of the pond, which will then be stocked with rainbow trout. BBEMA was able to do this work in part because of the willingness of surrounding landowners, like Amalgamated Dairies Limited (ADL), to work with them. Jim Bradley, CEO of ADL, said the company was happy to work with BBEMA on this important project. “We are pleased to work with and support BBEMA … and their partnership with the DFO Recreation Fisheries Conservation Partnership Program, the City of Summerside, local businesses, and adjacent landowners to improve the fish habitat and ecological diversity to the pond and upland streams,” said Bradley.

COLIN MACLEAN/JOURNAL PIONEER Tracy Brown and David Allan, of the Bedeque Bay Environmental Association, at the group’s latest project, the rejuvenation of the one of Summerside’s only fresh water fishing ponds.