Two Storms in Three Years on Prince Edward Island

On Monday we crossed the eight mile long Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.

We drove across the island to the north shore and Cavendish Campground in PEI National Park. Note that the site looks more than a little ragged.

On September 7, 2019, post tropical storm Dorian pummeled this area. There were strong winds and a significant storm surge. The inland trees here were mostly a monoculture of white spruce, and they were old. 90% of them fell. The park service cleared the used areas, but left the others to provide wildlife habitat and build soil.

The damage was mostly right in this part of the park (which has three sites along the north coast).

Then on September 23, 2022, post tropical storm Fiona hit. This was a much longer storm with heavy rain and strong storm surge. It affected the entire island. The damage in this photograph is at a disc golf course we went to in the middle of the island. The course was in a “sustainably harvested forest”, most of which is now gone.

Fiona ripped up the dunes in the National Park. What you see is a dune that lies between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New London Bay. This is the bay side of the dune, the surge must have overtopped the dune here.

I’m pretty sure Fiona is responsible for stripping the leaves off these birches, leaving dead twigs at the ends of many branches and adding to the general dishevelment of the campground.

It has made nice habitat for the snowshoe hares judging by our sightings. (I had just tapped to take the picture of the hare in front as the second one jumped out of the brush.)

We have one more day here and I hope to do a little more exploring before I write up a more general entry for this island. Stay tuned.