The City of Charlottetown owns over 260 hectares (657 acres) of wellfield land across four sites in Brackley, Union, Suffolk, and Miltonvale. These lands not only host the source of Charlottetown’s public water system, but are also areas of natural diversity, contributing to important groundwater retention and wildlife habitat.
On May 28, 2025, with support from the Nature Conservatory of Canada (NCC), the City of Charlottetown successfully listed its municipal wellfield lands under the Government of Canada’s Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) designation.
OECM’s are a globally recognized conservation designation that recognizes lands that are creating positive biodiversity outcomes, even if that is not the primary goal. The wellfield lands host the extraction sites for the city’s drinking water, in the form of groundwater. The conservation of underground aquifers is important, especially since P.E.I. is entirely dependent on groundwater for potable water. The designation of these lands as an OECM recognizes the ongoing work the City has done to conserve the natural areas of these properties.
These lands have been reported to the Province of PEI as an OECM and will be included in the public Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD). This means that the City’s wellfield lands will contribute to the province of P.E.I.’s protected area goal of 7%, and Canada’s protected and conserved area goal of 30%.
In 2024, the Nature Conservancy of Canada provided funding to create forest management plans for the wellfield properties. Forest management plans are an important tool used to ensure a forest remains healthy, vibrant, and resilient in the face of climate change. The City officially adopted these forest management plans in March 2025, demonstrating our commitment to conserving natural areas within the wellfields, to protect the city’s water source. The official implementation of the forest management plans on the wellfield lands was a crucial step in the wellfield lands being recognized as an OECM.
To see what actions from the Forest Management Plans have been implemented to date, check out the Charlottetown Climate Action Tracker: Action: 7.1.2 | Climate Action Tracker