With this year’s spring planting behind us, now’s the time to secure your spot for the 2025 season. Whether you want to plant trees on your idle or marginal land or plant shrubs to naturalize your shoreline, RVCA is now booking site visits to get the process started.

The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) offers generous grants to help landowners protect and enhance the watershed’s natural resources: tree planting is subsidized to between $0.15 and $0.40 per tree, while shoreline naturalization costs may be covered up to 90%.

Tree planting and shoreline naturalization projects support a thriving watershed by slowing down and filtering stormwater runoff, reducing erosion, mitigating floods and storing carbon to reduce the impacts of climate change. And there are benefits for the landowners, too: depending on the project, they may see reduced property maintenance, increased privacy, lower heating and cooling costs, fewer nuisance geese and increased property value. 

“It’s really a win-win for everyone,” said RVCA Forestry Manager Ian Cochrane. “These projects become a legacy that landowners can gift to the next generation in the form of a clean environment, thriving biodiversity and a beautiful natural place to visit.”

The RVCA plants more than 200,000 native trees across the Mississippi and Rideau Valley watersheds every year, and approximately 10,000 native shoreline trees, shrubs and flowers around Rideau Valley lakes and rivers. 

Site visits ensure eligibility and will allow staff to craft a custom planting plan to suit your needs. Once your project is booked, staff will order the plants and work towards the 2025 spring planting season. Staff will also return for several years to ensure the survival of your project and refill where necessary.

To book a tree planting site visit contact Ian Cochrane at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To book a shoreline naturalization site visit contact Meaghan McDonald at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Tree Planting Eligibility: 

Our large-scale tree planting program is available to all landowners in the Rideau Valley and Mississippi Valley watersheds, provided they meet minimum planting requirements. Outside the City of Ottawa, landowners must have at least 1.25 acres of suitable land and must order at least 1,000 trees. Within the City of Ottawa’s portion of the MVCA and RVCA watersheds, tree planting minimums have been lowered to 500 trees for 2025. This means Ottawa properties with 0.62 acres (0.25 hectares) of suitable land or more may now be eligible to participate. 

Shoreline Naturalization Eligibility: 

All lake- and river-front landowners within the Rideau Valley watershed are eligible for subsidized shoreline naturalization along the “ribbon of life” where land meets water. Staff work with landowners to create a custom plan that preserves their water access and views while adding a natural buffer along the shore. Landowners can choose to do the planting themselves or have RVCA staff assist. 

Learn more about our stewardship programs.

Just in time for cottage season, the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region (MRSPR) has released a series of short educational videos about keeping your drinking water safe when drawing directly from a lake or river. 

Drinking surface water is not uncommon on waterfront properties, but comes with unique risks, including increased potential for harmful algal blooms, pathogens and chemical contaminants to impact drinking water safety.

The MRSPR’s new four-part video series addresses these issues, discussing the pros and cons of available at-home water treatment options and even taking viewers on a tour of an Otter Lake resident’s water treatment setup.

“Drinking water safety is paramount for lake residents, but it can be difficult to find reliable information to ensure you’re taking the right actions to keep your family safe,” said Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Program Manager Marika Livingston. “We hope these videos can shed some light on the risks and offer easy solutions to help residents manage them.”

A recent study of private drinking water supplies on seven major lakes in the Upper and Middle Rideau Valley watershed found that approximately 1,000 residential properties draw water directly from their lake. About one third of these properties reported they are drinking that surface water.  
The study recommended more public education for users of private surface water and groundwater systems, with a focus on the rising issue of harmful algae blooms on lakes and how to choose an appropriate private water treatment system for your property to ensure safe drinking water. This may include a combination of filters, chemical disinfectants, UV light disinfection, water softening or reverse osmosis. Each system comes with its own benefits and limitations, including the little-known fact that UV light disinfection is not effective for removing the toxic bacteria present during a harmful algal bloom (sometimes called a blue-green algae bloom). 

The video series can be found  on Youtube

More information about drinking water protection in general – including how residents can help keep contaminants out of their drinking water sources – can be found at www.mrsourcewater.ca.

More to explore: 

The MRSPR, in partnership with local conservation authorities and neighbouring source protection regions, helps produce the Drinking Water Wise webinar series focused on informing residents about drinking water issues. Find recordings of past webinars and sign up on the mailing list to hear about upcoming dates here: https://www.quinteconservation.ca/en/watershed-management/drinking-water-wise-webinars.aspx.