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.
When photographer Jon Stuart first visited the Stillwater wetland off Moodie Drive in the early days of the pandemic, he could tell something was a little off.
Tree branches stuck out of the water, but there were no trees nearby. In the distanced towered a lone mature elm tree – an unusual wetland resident.
Compared to the thrum of a thriving summer wetland, winter wetlands may seem as silent as outer space.
But they're not empty, nor are they vacant – life's just a little slower, a little less showy, in an ice-covered marsh or swamp.
No Swim advisories are no fun, but our aquatic experts are working hard to keep our water and beaches clean – one wetland restoration at a time.
The Black Rapids wetland project is a perfect example of how a natural feature like a wetland can act as a water treatment plant to filter pollution out of the water - reducing the impact on our summer fun at the same time.
You know what they say: "If you build it, they will come." But that old adage isn't just for haunted baseball fields – it also applies to wetland projects right in the heart of Ottawa's greenbelt.
Last fall, staff at the RVCA and the National Capital Commission created 10,000 square metres of new wetland habitat along Stillwater Creek, just south of the new DND headquarters off Moodie Drive and Highway 417.
Thanks to observations from the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre, which is located nearby, staff at the NCC and RVCA discovered the wetland had been suffering annually from extreme low water conditions. Most of the year the wetland was completely dry, dominated by long, reedy grasses that don't encourage much biodiversity.
