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Love Your Lake Microgrant

Healthy shorelines are among the most productive and diverse environments supporting a vibrant community of plants and wildlife, filtering pollutants and protecting against erosion.
The Love Your Lake Microgrant Program provided a $500.00 grant to the MLA to take action toward improving and maintaining shoreline and lake health.

A grant application was written and submitted by Doreen Donald, Chair of the Environment Team, to the Love Your Lake Program in 2021. A grant of $500.00 was awarded to the MLA, but due to COVID restrictions and a very limited supply of planting materials, the project was postponed until the summer of 2022.

The first phase of the project involves a planting along the river corridor in the Town of Carleton Place. Over the past several years, the MLA has been making a concerted effort to partner, work and collaborate with organizations in our lake community, all of which are interested in the health of the lake and the quality of the lake’s water. This microgrant was felt to be an excellent vehicle to partner with the Urban Forest and River Corridor Advisory Committee (UFRCAC) to the Town of Carleton Place as they have a vested interest in the lake and some time back, many trees and plants were cut down along the river corridor.

The second phase of the project is to take approximately half of the native trees, shrubbery and plants purchased with the microgrant and make them available, at no cost, to the lake community to help encourage planting along the shoreline of the lake.

There are several expected outcomes of this project:

  • Increased awareness and knowledge of how naturalized shorelines enhance both the quality of water and the creation and maintenance of natural habitats for fish, birds and animals. This public education is focused on both the members of the Town of Carleton Place and the lake community which shares its boundaries with four municipalities.

  • Enhancing and promoting the organizations involved with the project – Watersheds Canada, Love Your Lake Program, Canadian Wildlife Federation, the MLA and the UFRC Committee.

  • Demonstrating the value of collaboration between organizations within the community and our local municipalities.

  • Fostering collaborative work between volunteer organizations that have an interest in the environment and specifically, water.

  • Creating a more naturalized shoreline on the river through Carleton Place.

  • Creating more naturalized shorelines around Mississippi Lake.


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