Much work remains, but most of P.E.I. National Park will be ready for visitors 

While many areas of P.E.I. National Park were damaged during post-tropical storm Fiona, most will be open or partially open this summer. 

Parks Canada has come up with a plan for the 2023 tourism season. 

But it warns, some sites will look different than they have in the past. 

Tara McNally-MacPhee, visitor experience manager for P.E.I. National Park., said in the days after Fiona, staff surveyed the damage and were overwhelmed by what they saw. 

"I still think back to that day and the emotional reaction that we all had instinctively. When we entered the park, there was such a change.... Where do you start?," she said.

"There were so many trees down and so much infrastructure compromised. And at that point we didn't even know the extent of it all. All we could see was kind of destruction everywhere." 

Beach access is currently allowed at two locations — Covehead Harbour beach and North Rustico beach.

Parks Canada staff said more beach access points will reopen as repairs to access points are completed. 

McNally-MacPhee said many of the trees that didn't come down in post-tropical storm Dorian came down during Fiona. 

One place that was particularly impacted is the causeway to Robinson's Island. It sustained a lot of damage and erosion from waves and storm surges. 

Parks Canada plans to remove the asphalt road to Robinson's Island, and replace it with an unpaved multi-use trail. 

While emergency response vehicles will continue to have access, people wanting to use the trail system will have to park at the Brackley Beach complex and hike or cycle to the island — about 3.5 kilometres according to Parks Canada. 

"We've known for years that at some point that causeway will be compromised with sea-level rise and flooding. And of course, Fiona brought that," said McNally-MacPhee. 

"And we did notice that the roadway was compromised ... so we made the decision to start to retreat from that location."