P.E.I. government looking to buy more land in and near buffer zones

P.E.I's minister of environment, energy and climate actionsays the province has purchased 100 hectares of land in and near buffer zones and is looking to buy more.

The Buffer Zone Acquisition Program is designed to support conservation and reforestation activities, says a government release issued Thursday. A total of $2.5 million was set aside for such a buyback program in the 2022-2023 capital budget.

"It's an exciting project for us because it's going to have a major impact on the future of our waterways on P.E.I.," Steven Myerstold CBC's Louise Martin in an interview Thursday afternoon.

"We have to take care of it and bring it to a state that is in a natural state, which should help protect [it] from runoffs and it should help better seal the waterway."

After Myers spoke to CBC News, his department provided more details of the purchases in an email Friday.

"The program has allocated$265,000 to acquire six properties totalling 161 [hectares]so far in 2022/23," it said. "The purchases are in various stages of negotiations."

'Forever program'

According to a news release, the land is being purchased from interested owners at "fair market price." The acreage is managed by Myers' department and included in the P.E.I. Protected and Conserved Area Network.

Myers said they were initially concerned about how the agricultural community would respond to the program, but he said it's been great so far.

"You can't use that land anyway, so you're effectively selling land you can't do anything in," he said.

"You don't have to worry about being blamed for something ... when there's runoffs or something happens in the buffer zone."

Myers said he expects most of the buffer zones will be purchased inland as opposed to on P.E.I.'s North Shore.

The land must be near a mapped watercourse, wetland, coastal barrier, beach, pond or estuary in order to be eligible.

It can include entire properties or a subdivided portion that contains the riparian buffer zone, roughly 15 metres or 50 feet from the edge of the beach bank, sediment bed or area of water-tolerant vegetation.

"This is a forever program," said Myers. "You want to sell your buffer zone to us? Then let us know we'll buy it."