Vital Forests Film Series
Explore the Island's Hidden Forest Ecosystems.
The goal of each of these four short films is to guide the viewer through an exploration of one of our Island's unique and almost forgotten forest ecosystems. Coastal, Wetland, Riparian and Upland forests, are each critical ecologies providing habitat for endangered and threatened wildlife and refuges for rare speices of flora. Throughout each film resident ecologists, biologists and conservationists provide insight into each ecosystems special importance and the challenges they face in our changing climate and as a result of our human actions. We hope you are inspired and discover that this Island that we call home has a profoundly diverse and vital natural world living all around you.
This project was made possible with the financial support of the PEI Forested Landscape Priority Place For Species at Risk Initiative, Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Province of Prince Edward Island, and created in partnership with the PEI Forests Fish and Wildlife Division.
Coastal Forests
Every spring over 60 bird species migrate to PEI to build nests and raise their young in our forests. Two thirds of these birds depend on coastal forests along the way or during their stay as stop over sites. Follow Dan McRae as he studies these essential forests and shares his insight into why these ecosystems are so important. Currently, many kilometers of coast are being hard armoured each year which alters natural patterns of sediment movment, dune building and impacts costal habitat for countless species.
Riparian Forests
Much like the animals that live within them, riparian forests, exist between water and land. They contain a unique community of plants capable of tolerating both flooding and drought. And like rivers that change and grow as they flow to the sea, so do the forests that grace their banks. Join, Rosemary Curley, Virginia Everetter, Jordon Condon and Tyrone Paul on a short journey through these remarkable ecosystems.
Wetland Forests
As the glaciers retreated, they deposited rocks, soil and clay onto our sandstone base, changing drainage patterns and creating wet areas. In time, these became forested wetlands, specialized ecosystems capable of tolerating an abundance of water. Explore this remarkable ecosystem with forest conservation specialist, Julie-Lynn Zahavich, and discover their vital importance to species at risk.
Upland Forests
Historically, our woodlands rivalled any on the eastern seaboard in both size and diversity. It is hard to imagine, but we once had trees as tall as 150’ and over six feet in diameter. Upland forests thrive in our Island’s well drained sandy soil and grows trees that are resilient, shade tolerant and long-lived, like yellow birch, red spruce, white pine, eastern hemlock, sugar maple and red oak. Each of these species grow in a favoured habitat, creating a patchwork of dominate trees, which in-turn support a divers community of associated plants and animals, especially important for rare species like the northern myotis.