Restoration and Demonstration Projects
Ecological restoration is simply about helping nature heal itself. When an area has been damaged—by development, pollution, erosion, or invasive species—restoration helps bring back native plants, wildlife habitat, and natural processes so the ecosystem can function properly again. In short, it’s fixing what’s broken in the environment so it can stay healthy, support wildlife, and continue providing clean water, stable soil, and other benefits people rely on.
RVCA completes restoration on our own Conservation Lands and partners with public and private landowners. These projects look to restore wildlife habitat, wetland function, stormwater management, stable shoreline all to create a healthier, more resistant watershed.
Scroll below to learn more about restoration projects at RVCA:
Explore Our Projects
- Wetland Restoration
- Shoreline Protection
- Habitat Enhancement
- Runoff Reduction
- Tree Planting
- Invasive Species
Big Rideau Wetland Creation Project
Construction of this one-acre wetland on a donated property on the shores of Big Rideau Lake wrapped up in 2025. Finishing touches will be added over the next few years as shoreline plantings and other features are added. The wetland has variable depths and natural features to support amphibians, turtles and birds. It will also provide critical open-water feeding for the bat species recorded in the nearby woodlands. The property was donated to the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation in 2023 with the intention to restore it back to a more natural state. Butternut plantings and other stewardship projects are also planned for the property.
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Jebbs Creek Wetland Restoration Project
Located within the RVCA-owned Perth Wildlife Reserve, this riverine wetland project created 1,600m2 of new spawning and nursery habitat for the creek’s 20 fish species, creating wetland "fingers" ideal for spawning northern pike. Before construction, the area had become a monoculture with intermittent water flows. Pike would spawn there when the water was high, but fry would get trapped and die once water levels dropped. Today’s water levels are more reliable, and a recently published six-year monitoring report confirmed successful pike spawning and juvenile pike in the area. Key project partners included the Friends of the Tay River (FOTR), the Otty Lake Association (OLA) and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
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Hutton Marsh Restoration Project
Since 2019, RVCA has partnered with Leeds-Grenville Stewardship Council, Ducks Unlimited, Wildlife Habitat Canada, the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation and local landowners to restore the marsh at Motts Mills Conservation Area to a more natural state. The wetland had become choked and crowded, with almost no open water to support waterfowl or other open water species. Three phases of work have opened up several acres of ponds and more than a kilometre of open-water channels to encourage increased biodiversity in the marsh. In 2025, RVCA staff also added sandy nesting habitat for endangered Blandings turtles.
Stillwater Wetland Restoration Project
In 2018, the City of Ottawa’s Stage 2 LRT construction triggered a wetland restoration project at Stillwater Wetland along Moodie Drive. The City was required to offset downstream flood storage losses, and the RVCA and its partners saw an opportunity to rejuvenate a damaged wetland complex at the same time.
The multi-year project has since realigned a section of Stillwater Creek to a more natural meander, added 10,000 cubic metres of flood storage capacity in a newly created wetland, and added another four smaller wetland cells on the southern side of the property. Dozens of native bird, amphibian, turtle and plant species have returned to the site, including species at risk such as the western chorus frog, barn swallow and short-eared owl.
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Black Rapids Wetland Restoration Project
Completed in 2016, this project doubled the Black Creek wetland near Barrhaven to nearly 7,000 m2 and reconnected a local tributary to support improved amphibian breeding, fish habitat and bird foraging. With support from the National Capital Commission (NCC) and the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund, the wetland now boasts a variety of side slopes, woody debris and native trees, shrubs and wetland vegetation.
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Hydro Ottawa Pollinator Meadow
A 15-acre swath of Hydro Ottawa land in Barrhaven is now a buzzing metropolis of bees, birds and butterflies, thanks to RVCA and its partners planting one of the largest pollinator meadows in Eastern Ontario. This collaborative project grew from the construction of Hydro Ottawa's new municipal transformer station on Cambrian Road between Barrhaven and Manotick. The new station only required five of the property's 24 acres, so Hydro Ottawa partnered with RVCA, Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation, Canadian Wildlife Federation and City of Ottawa to create the new pollinator habitat on its surplus land. Seeding began in 2021 under RVCA's supervision and is now being maintained annually to support growth and control invasive species.
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Floodplain protection, Village of Richmond
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RVCA partnered with the City of Ottawa to naturalize a former corn field in a swampy woodland along Flowing Creek in the Village of Richmond, helping to protect nearby developments against flooding. The project focused on planting climate change-adapted species (shagbark hickory and swamp white oak) mixed with locally adapted species (silver maple, pine, cedar, and spruce). Through a partnership with the University of Guelph’s Elm Recovery Program, staff also planted 25 Dutch Elm seedlings descended from some of the largest, healthiest and potentially disease-tolerant elms in Ontario, including some from the local area. This will create a potential seed orchard for resistant elms in the future. RVCA staff planted, tree guarded, monitored, and mowed the property for 3 years to get the trees established. The site is also home to the RVCA's 7 millionth tree planted in the watershed.
