PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Rideau Lakes Environmental Foundation Announces 2026 Research Grants Four projects to study the impact of docks, long-term lake change, microplastics, and road salt in the Rideau Lake Portland, ON — March 2026 — The Rideau Lakes Environmental Foundation (RLEF), a registered Canadian charity, today announced the recipients of its 2026 Small Grants Program. Four research…
Small Grants for Scientific Research on and around the Rideau Lake
DEADLINE: January 31, 2026
To develop our understanding of the science that underpins our environmental activities, the RLEF has established a program of small grants to support research projects. We are interested in receiving proposals from scientific researchers working in any discipline that contributes to our knowledge of the flora, fauna, or environment of the Rideau Lakes.
RLEF activities are featured in an article in the Westport Review-Mirror, September 18, 2025…
Restoring degraded aquatic habitat is one of the most appealing tools in freshwater conservation.
A study on Big Rideau Lake, published in 2024, tested one such intervention for smallmouth bass spawning habitat — and the results illustrate how difficult translating that logic into practice can be.
Layer by layer, sediment cores reveal centuries of biological and chemical change in lake-bottom sediment. This study looked back more than 200 years — far enough to capture the disruption of canal construction beginning in 1828 — but the most striking finding concerns the past 25 to 30 years. Despite significant improvements in phosphorus levels since the 1970s, the lakes…
Big Rideau Lake is one of the few lakes in Eastern Ontario deep enough to support a Lake Trout population. There is a concern that the this population is declining, but there is no statistical information to support that theory. Telemetry studies will allow researchers from the Fisheries Conservation Foundation (FCF) to track the movement of Lake Trout, identify…
The expansion of Bass Spawning Sanctuaries (BaSS) will help regenerate the declining bass populations in our lakes. BaSSs are areas of the lake in which all fishing is prohibited but only until the first week of July. Angling in BaSSs is permitted during the rest of the year. The Fisheries Conservation Foundation is leading a local effort to expand BaSSs…
The Fisheries Conservation Foundation (FCF) has results from their RLEF-funded research into the Large Mouth Bass (LMb) and Small Mouth Bass (SMB) population in local lakes, that included input from both Queen’s University and Carleton University. The study focused on the reproductive ecology of black bass and the impacts of (illegal) fishing during the reproductive period The FCF surveyed 7…
His work revisited six lakes in the Rideau Canal system — Big Rideau, Upper Rideau, Lower Rideau, Indian, Lake Opinicon, and Otter Lake — using sediment cores collected in 2019 and 2020 to update paleolimnological studies conducted on the same lakes roughly 25 to 30 years earlier. The approach relies on diatoms — microscopic, single-celled algae whose silica shells accumulate…
Three Research Projects Funded The Rideau Lakes Environmental Foundation has again funded several research projects that will add to and enrich knowledge of our local environment. Our stewardship of natural resources depends on developing knowledge of how ecosystems function. Your support of the RLEF enables us to ensure we include our unique environment in ongoing research. At the Fisheries Conservation…
Understanding the lake is key to looking after it. So the RLEF has once again launched a Call for Participation for research exploring the environment of our lakes. Proposals are in, and the RLEF Board is now conducting their review. As they read, Board Members are assessing each proposal to ensure that it’s relevant, significant, feasible, and timely. We are…
Letter to Lake Residents To BRLA Members and other Friends of the Rideau Lakes: I am writing on behalf of the Rideau Lakes Environmental Foundation (RLEF), to ask for your help. Since 1991, our small non-profit foundation has worked alongside BRLA and other local lake associations to focus on protecting, improving and enhancing the Rideau Lakes. Below are three critical…