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Parks Canada using old Christmas trees to protect sand dunes

Parks Canada using old Christmas trees to protect sand dunes

Parks Canada has found an interesting way to protect sand dunes using discarded Christmas trees.

Piles of old Christmas trees are stacked up along Brackley Beach to fill in what are known as blow out areas where sand has drifted away.

Kim Grant is the public outreach officer with Parks Canada and says the trees act like a net catching the sand and help rebuild the dune.

“People are at the end of holidays putting these trees out at the bottom of their driveways for waste to collect. But what they don't know is some of the trees have been ending up here and helping repair and protect some of our dune blow outs,” she said.

Grant says it’s rewarding work to watch the trees gradually catch the sands and make little ridges that build over time.

The dunes make for nice scenery, but also serve a purpose by protecting the P.E.I coastline and preventing erosion.

Parks Canada started the project a couple of years ago with tree donations from The Island Waste Management Corporation.

About 120 trees will be used at Brackley Beach and workers will also use other brush they cut down. It is kept in place using stakes.

Parks Canada has had some success with this project before. In another location, they saw about a metre of sand accumulate last year.

Signs have been put up to remind people to stay off the dunes.

“We have areas that old beach accesses or that people have used as unofficial beach accesses or even people just up climbing in the dunes exploring,” Grant said.

Staff will monitor the dunes regularly and hope to see more sand on Brackley Beach within a year.