This story is one of many examples of the great work our watershed groups do to educate/raise awareness about protecting our wetlands and all the creatures who inhabit them. We featured PEI Watershed Alliance ED, Heather Laiskonis (below) recently in our Landlines podcast, Protecting PEI Wetlands; Policy and Practice. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/uHf_0sKn36E?si=IfPaw75xIK5FK3vd
Please note: The department will be accepting public comments on the project until Nov. 28.
Proposed golf course in eastern P.E.I. wins community support, but sparks anger from watershed group.
P.E.I. Watershed Alliance has concerns about environmental impact of project
Nancy Russell ·Posted: Nov 17, 2025 6:00 PM AST | Last Updated: November 17
A proposed 9-hole golf course in Monticello, in eastern P.E.I., is getting mixed reviews. The P.E.I. Watershed Alliance has concerns about the environmental impact of the project, but the proposal has fans in the nearby community. CBC’s Nancy Russell reports.
While the proposal has support in the community, the P.E.I. Watershed Alliance has complained to the area’s MLA that the project is negatively impacting the environment.
The alliance says the developer jumped the gun by starting to clear the land for the golf course before getting approval.
“They have definitely graded the land, removed the trees and brought in excavation trucks there,” said the alliance’s executive director, Heather Laiskonis.
She said the project also breached the federal Migratory Birds Act because trees were taken down during the migration period.
“[The act] sadly never gets enforced here on Prince Edward Island.”
But developer Kris Taylor of Sticks and Stones Development Inc. said he is allowed to work on his land, even before the project is approved.
“I feel like I didn’t break any laws, and as a property owner I had the right… to clear some of the land there this summer,” he said.
Taylor said he wasn’t excavating on the site, but was burying the trees to sequester carbon, something called tree vaulting.
As for the migratory birds, he said he’s learning as the project goes along.
“It’s an educational process for me, and I’ve used an environmental consultant from the get-go on this project,” Taylor said.
“I felt like I had the right to clear the trees during the time that I was clearing them. And, you know, I’ve been made aware that there is a Migratory Bird Act, and this is maybe contrary to that, but it’s not something I have been charged with or thought was a problem at the time.”
The project is currently undergoing a provincial environmental assessment.
A public meeting on the project was held in October, and Taylor said many in the community support what he is doing.
“It was very robust meeting. There were a lot of people there and there seemed to be a lot of support,” Taylor said.
Jerry MacDonald was at that meeting, and is in favour of Taylor’s project.
“Most people were for it, probably 90 per cent. There was a couple people against it, and everybody’s allowed their opinion,” MacDonald said. He thinks the proposed golf course will be a “great thing” for the community.
“This is a very quiet area, and I think it’ll bring a lot more people around, and it never hurts to have more people around. And it’s supposed to give like eight jobs, you know, [we] need all the jobs we can [get].”
Laiskonis said she would prefer to see intact forest rather than golf courses.
“But, you know, that’s something that the community wants and the community should have it,” Laiskonis said.
“We’re just asking people do the very bare minimum of following the law.”
Laiskonis said she has shared her concerns in a letter to the MLA for the area, Robin Croucher, and with P.E.I.’s Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.
In a statement to CBC News, the department said there have been no provincial environmental violations to date.
“An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is underway for this project…. There is no legislated timeline for this process, and it usually requires a minimum of several months depending upon complexity of the proposal and other factors.”
The department will be accepting public comments on the project until Nov. 28.
