Restoration Bay Project Complete

The Kahnawà:ke Environment Protection Office (KEPO) has completed the Tekakwitha Island and Bay Restoration project. Over the past several months, the primary focus has been on installing trees, shrubs, and aquatic plants across the project zones. Patrick Regaz is the General Manager of Field Science at KEPO:

“Feels great, I think we have a really good project completed now and obviously there’s a lot of on-going monitoring, maintenance and upkeep and so on. Definitely great to have the bulk of the project complete.”

Overall, the project included dredging 5,000 cubic meters of sediment from the bay, the creation of two large wetland features, natural access points to the water, a community beach, removal of invasive species and replacement with diverse native plants and other amenities. Regaz says the project was always done with the community in mind:

“We always had the community’s needs in mind as well as the wildlife and the environment, so we were really trying to marry the 2 with everything that we did. The project started with a focus on the bay itself and dredging and trying to improve access for the canoe club and fisheries in the bay and expanded to include some work on the island as well so I’m really hopeful that the community will appreciate the changes that have been made.”

A grand opening for the project will be held in the Spring of 2023.