To think Rebecca Whitman once planned to be a doctor.

Today, Foley Mountain's long-time site supervisor can't imagine doing anything but her dream job: living on Westport's beloved wild mountain and delivering outdoor education programs for hundreds of school children, day campers and families each year.

"I look at my life and think it's a dream," said Whitman, who has also been raising her three children on site since she and her husband arrived 16 years ago. "It's just such an ideal scenario for us. It comes with its challenges, but it has so many benefits." 

We get it: summer is brief, and aquatic plants can be annoying when you're trying to make the most of dock life. It can be tempting to rip them out, install an expensive water circulator or even use an herbicide to get rid of them.

But there are better ways to keep aquatic plants from getting out of hand while supporting both a thriving ecosystem and your perfect getaway.

Is your personal paradise protecting the lake you love? Or are you accidentally disrupting the natural systems nearby? If you're unsure, don't despair: we've got a quiz to help you find out. 

Living an unexpected life in a public park

Foley Mountain is home to so many creatures: the chipmunks and beavers, the dragonflies and salamanders, the famous grey rat snakes, the red-tailed hawks.

It's home for the Forest School students who, after just a few weeks, feel like part of the ecosystem. It's home for the locals who routinely traverse the same old trails, somehow always finding something new.

But for Peri McQuay, Foley Mountain has been more than a home, more than the place she lived for 30 years, writing and raising her children.

For Peri McQuay, Foley Mountain has been an unexpected and miraculous gift.

Stumped for gift ideas? Why not plant a tree, adopt an acre or support water quality protection right here in the Rideau Valley!

The Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation works hard to protect Ontario's prettiest little valley: conserving wetlands and forests, supporting tree planting and shoreline restoration, and promoting pristine water quality through research and monitoring.

This holiday season, you can push this critical work even further while giving the gift of conservation to all those nature-lovers on your nice list. Consider these five unique gift ideas and make it a truly green Christmas! 

It's not very often a 50-acre swath of provincially-significant wetland becomes available in the City of Ottawa – but when it does, the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation is keen to protect it. 

The Foundation accepted the substantial section of Manion Corners Wetland this fall from siblings Paul Lackner and Colleen Green, who decided their family's natural property – lovingly referred to as "the farm" – belonged in a land trust for perpetual protection. 

The Wolfe Lake Association is making it easier for anglers to get the lead out of their tackleboxes – and out of the ecosystem.

For the next year, anglers who hand in their toxic lead sinkers, jigs and other lead tackle at participating retailers will receive a $10 voucher to spend on alternative lead-free gear. They can also exchange their old lead gear for lead-free tackle at various community events planned throughout 2022.

Imagine: it's mid-morning on a warm spring day. You follow a trail through a sun-streaked forest. Migrating warblers send trills through the treetops and delicate blossoms decorate the forest floor. You look up to see a red squirrel peering back at you, or, if you're lucky, a shy barred owl. 

Passing through dappled sunlight and cedar-scented shadow, the trail leads to a thrumming wetland. There, the marshlands overtake your senses: cattails bowing to the gentle wind, turtles plunking off their sunbaked logs; red-winged blackbirds sending warnings from their reedy watchtowers. 

The Rideau River laps at your feet while the blossoming sun warms your chest and fills your soul. 

So, you're building a new dock. But which kind is best? What's going to require the least amount of maintenance, protect the shoreline, get quick approval and still allow you to live that decadent #docklife you deserve this summer?

Answer: the floating dock. *cue choir of angels*

A 15-acre swath of Hydro Ottawa land will soon be a buzzing metropolis of bees, birds and butterflies as the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) helps plant one of the largest pollinator meadows in Eastern Ontario.

The RVCA's tree planting program has many branches of support, but it's the sturdy trunk of Forests Ontario that holds it all together. 

The provincial not-for-profit manages the 50 Million Tree Program, which provides two-thirds of RVCA's tree planting funding each year to help private landowners undertake largescale afforestation (the creation of new forests) for just pennies per tree.

Water quality in our local lakes and rivers start right at home, where you wash your car, walk your dog and plant your gardens. The more you can reduce the amount of rain, meltwater and chemicals like fertilizers and detergents that drain into the storm sewer, the better our water quality will be. 

Check out our interactive graphic to see which side of the street you're on. 

Ian Cochrane has a family history of forestry and conservation. As the RVCA's new forestry manager, he has fully embraced his calling – bugs and all – to plant more than 200,000 trees a year for a more resilient community, planet and future.

A new batch of butternut seedlings have been sent into the world to help pull the endangered tree back from the brink – but this spring's lot may have been the last.

Landowners flocked to the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority's specialized cold storage facility on Dilworth Road this spring to pick up their baby butternut trees, carefully grown at the Ferguson Forestry Centre from resilient seeds harvested across Eastern Ontario.

Butternut trees in Canada and the US have been decimated by the butternut canker, an incurable fungal disease scientists believe originated in Asia. 

'Twas the week before Christmas

Quarantined in your house

When you finished your shopping

With the click of a mouse! 

We all know it: the holidays can be stressful, expensive and wasteful. All that running around buying things people don't need, trying to read everyone's minds, bracing for Boxing Day returns once everything's been unwrapped.

STOP!

Why not skip the hassle and give the gift of conservation instead?

Simon Lunn knew he needed to drill a new well and decommission his old one. What he didn't figure was that the conservation authority would hand him $1,000 towards his costs.

Mr. Lunn, a long-time Smiths Falls resident near the Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club, received the funds through the Rural Clean Water Grants program, which covers up to 90 per cent of costs for projects that protect water resources in the watershed.

Meet Roy and Carole Robinson: they raise sustainable, grass-fed Scottish highlander beef and grow seasonal vegetables on their farm near Smiths Falls, near the banks of the Rideau River.

The Robinsons founded Seanic Farms in 2003. As they've transitioned the old, dormant farmland into to a more environmentally-friendly operation, they've made great use of the RVCA's landowner stewardship programs, including our Rural Clean Water Grant program. 

​Waterfront living can be so relaxing: always mowing the lawn, raking weeds out of your swimming area and stepping in goose poop...Wait, what?! That's not what owning a waterfront property is all about. But for too many people, that's the reality. 

Cottages can become second homes, with all the annoying lawn work and maintenance that comes with them. But it doesn't have to be this way. With a few tweaks, you can get on the path to "the good side" and a more natural waterfront property. So: which side are you on? Scroll over the purple flags to learn how to turn your waterfront property a natural oasis.