Page 30 - Off Grid East Cost Spring 2017

Bridge over Troubled Waters:
$61.6 million a giant step forward for Petitcodiac River ecosystem
The Petitcodiac River drains a 3000 square kilometer watershed area into the Bay of Fundy and is the source of life for an important ecosystem that nourishes some of the world’s greatest estuaries not to mention home to a unique hemispheric shorebird refuge and the feeding grounds of the entire East Coast American shad fish population.
A causeway built in 1968 created a variety of environmental problems, including the buildup of silt and narrowing of the river. By 2000, massive silt deposits covered 95 percent of the river near Moncton and extended 35 km downstream to Shepody Bay. It became inhabitable for salmon and other fish and species of the ecosystem and had gained the notorious reputation of being the most endangered river in the country.
Open the flood gates
Years of activism and court cases led primarily by the Petitcodiac Riverkeepers resulted in the causeway gates being opened in 2010, and through the efforts of groups like the Fort Folly Habitat Recovery and the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance there have been exciting developments and renewed hope for the river. Significant progress is being made in restoring the river
to health and reintroducing salmon and other species that once thrived there.
30 off the grid