Mooney's Pond being drained, but no need for nature lovers — or the fish — to worry

Despite some wet weather this week, one natural area on Prince Edward Island is looking a bit dry lately.

Mooney's Pond in Peakes is undergoing some routine maintenance that involves replacing the wood timbers that normally hold water in the pond.

"In the next few weeks, all the water will be gone," said Hannah Murnaghan, the watershed co-ordinator at the Morell River Management Cooperative.

"They'll just be maybe a small trickle of water going through the middle of the pond. And it'll be down low for about a month or so. And then once we put the new stop logs in, the water will gradually rise back up to normal water level."

The stop logs were last replaced about 20 years ago.

"So we're just taking one out a day, very slowly to let the water drain so it's not a big rush of water downstream and it'll just be a slow process of taking them out until they're all the way to the bottom and then we'll start putting the new ones in."

Crews are removing the stop logs in such a way that the coldest water leaves Mooney's Pond first. During the hot weather, that cold water provides temporary relief to fish living downstream.

Mooney's Pond flows into the Morell River, one of P.E.I.'s best sport-fishing rivers.

"The bottom draw structure is important, especially for the Morell River since there are cold-water fish species downstream, like Atlantic salmon and brook trout so we always want to be letting that cold water from the bottom of the pond flow downstream, rather than the top, warmer surface water."

The popularity of Mooney's Pond is on the rise, according to the watershed group, especially in autumn when the leaves turn colour.

Last October, the trails had 6,000 visitors.

The pond is expected to be back to normal water levels in time for the fall photo season.