Our paddling trails are pristine waterways. Communities throughout the Fredericton Capital Region care deeply about preserving these natural environments. Protecting the water and the land is important.
The first line of protection is not littering or leaving any garbage on your paddling journey. Keeping our launch sites clean keeps the experience enjoyable for paddlers and safe for wildlife.
Several communities in the region have River Keeper programs. River keepers are fellow paddlers on the water, providing conservation education, invasive species surveys and collecting garbage unfortunately left by boaters and those on shore.
Everyone should adhere to the Clean, Wash, Dry your boat approach. You’ll see signage at most launch sites. By keeping to Clean, Wash, Dry guidelines, you are helping to protect our waterways from invasive species.
Two invasive species have entered our waterways in recent years: zebra mussels and Eurasian Milfoil.
Eurasian Water Milfoil grows and spreads rapidly while invading, replacing native plants. It negatively impacts fish and wildlife populations as well as human activities such as swimming, boating, and fishing. Eurasian watermilfoil is a perennial aquatic plant that grows under the water surface. Its leaves are feather-like with 12 or more thin segments (native milfoil has 11 or fewer leaf segments). Eurasian watermilfoil is most commonly found in water 1-3 m deep (~3-10 ft) in lakes, rivers, and ponds, but can occur at depths up to 10 m (~33 ft). It grows in thick, dense mats that crowd out native species, reducing biodiversity, and deoxygenate water when decomposing, killing other aquatic species.
Eurasian watermilfoil is spread through fragmentation of plants and the release of aquarium plants and pets. To prevent its spread, avoid boating through invaded areas, wash all equipment, and never release or compost unwanted aquarium vegetation.
Zebra mussels are a small invasive freshwater mussel from southwestern Europe (specifically the Black and Caspian Seas) that first arrived in the Great Lakes in the1980s through infested ballast water that was discharged from ships. Since then, they have been spreading through eastern Canada and the United States impacting ecosystems, recreational activities, and infrastructure. The presence of zebra mussels can negatively impact freshwater ecosystems by:
- Filtering water to the point where important food sources like plankton are depleted, which alters food webs. The over-filtering also creates clear water allowing sunlight to penetrate deeper which can increase growth of invasive aquatic plants like Eurasian Watermilfoil.
- Increasing toxic algae blooms, pathogenic bacteria, avian botulism, which impacts fish and wildlife.
- Altering spawning areas by changing the materials on the bottom on the waterways, which impacts fish egg survival.
Since they are capable of heavily colonizing on various surfaces, they can also negatively impact recreational activities and vital infrastructure. Due to their razor-sharp shell, recreational users are at a risk of cutting their feet while walking on beaches or swimming in water infested by zebra mussels. These invasive mussels are also responsible for clogging intake structures used by water treatment facilities and power plants.