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Improving headwater health and knowledge within the Stratford and Area Watersheds
This project targets headwaters which are a crucial part of stream and river ecosystems. They play an important role in temperature regulation and nutrient filtration throughout the entire system. They help to distribute organic matter throughout the system which is imperative to the health of fish, insects and all wildlife that relies on surface water. The health of a headwaters impacts the entire system and thus maintaining and monitoring headwaters is a key step in ensuring the health of wildlife across PEI.
Our Healthy Headwaters Project is funded in part by the Wildlife Conservation Fund
What is a headwater?
What is a headwater?
The start or source of a stream, most often spring fed!
Why do we survey headwaters?
Why do we survey headwaters?
The health of our headwaters heavily impact the health of the overall stream making it one of the most important areas in our watersheds. These surveys have been so helpful in learning about the current state of our headwaters and determining ways in which we could help improve the health of these headwaters.
Headwater enhancement
Headwater enhancement
Stream enhancement involves removing man-made and natural debris, this improves fish passage and water flow, leaving some debris is also important as it acts as habitat as many species.
Invasive removal
Invasive removal
Our team has been working to remove invasive species in our headwaters we removed over 2000 lbs. of invasive plant material during the 2025 field season.
Tree and shrub planting
Tree and shrub planting
The goal for this project is to plant 500 trees and shrubs across our local headwaters with a focus on those with higher water temperatures to provide more shade and protection in those areas.
You can find more information about headwaters on our social media pages!
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