'Just so shocking': Charlottetown crews assess tree damage from Fiona

Charlottetown parks superintendent Nancy McMinn said she couldn't find the words to describe how she felt when she first saw the destruction in Victoria Park. 

"It was just so shocking. I've been around for quite a few devastations — Hurricane Juan, White Juan, Hurricane Dorian — nothing compares to what I saw. Nothing," said McMinn. 

"When we went and did our initial assessment, we couldn't find any paths to walk on. Every single path was was just covered with trees, downed trees, hangers. Devastation, wherever you looked."

McMinn said city crews have been at Victoria Park since the storm, clearing out the front fields and around the infrastructure, but haven't started on the interior of the woods.

The city has called in Gary Schneider from Macphail Woods, who helped to create a woodlot management plan for the park, to discuss a rejuvenation plan for the Victoria Park forest. 

"This is an Acadian forest, and we have many trees that have reached their maturity age, which would be a lot of the birch trees here," McMinn said. 

"Some of the other trees aren't in great shape, some of the beech trees. So we'll be looking at possibly some trees that will handle climate change better. We'll be looking at native trees."

McMinn said the city has conducted an initial assessment of all the parks in the city, and almost every park has trees down.

She said the crews are working 11 hour days, seven days a week, to get the assessments done so they can prioritize what needs to be done. 

"We're hoping that this will be a rejuvenation, a positive thing. We'll be able to establish better, more defined trails," McMinn said. 

"We'll get to have lots of new plantings. I think it'll be positive in the end." 

In a fortuitous twist, the city hosted an urban forestry conference this week, and some of the delegates have jumped in to help. 

On Tuesday, they were at seven parks across Charlottetown, helping to triage the tree damage from Fiona.

"If there's something that looks like it might be an immediate hazard to the public, that would be higher priority," said Jessika Corkum-Gorrill, acting environment and sustainability manager for the city.