ALUS Mississippi-Rideau

Where Agriculture and Nature Meet

ALUS Mississippi-Rideau (formerly ALUS Lanark)

Launched in January 2022, ALUS Lanark was formed to support agricultural stewardship in Lanark County. In 2024, the ALUS community expanded its territory and became ALUS Mississippi-Rideau.

The new ALUS Mississippi-Rideau program will cover 8,500km2 which encompasses 31 municipalities and is home to approximately 986,000 people. In this region, agriculture is the backbone of many local communities and farmers have been stewards of the land for generations. ALUS recognizes the value of their stewardship efforts and provides financial support to enable farmers to continue producing food and commercial goods while protecting and enhancing habitat, biodiversity and clean water.

ALUS Mississippi-Rideau helps the region’s network of farmers who are keen to undertake environmental stewardship projects to adapt to the changing landscape and contribute to the health of this picturesque area of the province.

Mississippi-Rideau is home to many notable environmental features, including the Ottawa, Rideau and Mississippi Rivers, hundreds of lakes and parts of the Canadian Shield and the Great Lakes basin. Ranging from rural lake districts to productive farm country to the urban metropolis of Ottawa, Mississippi-Rideau is a diverse landscape with many opportunities to protect and improve local ecological services.

ALUS Mississippi-Rideau supports farmers in the creation of an array of ecosystem projects, including reforestation, windbreaks, riparian buffers, wetland projects, tallgrass prairie, pollinator habitat and more. These projects contribute to the health of the farmers’ privately-owned landscape, while also benefitting the broader environment by providing support for biodiversity; reducing downstream flooding in neighbouring communities and ecosystems; and mitigating the impacts of climate change through carbon sequestration.

Initiated by Climate Network Lanark and Lanark County, ALUS Mississippi-Rideau is administered by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority and the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority. The partnership of these organizations with the ALUS model speaks to the importance of the agricultural community to the county. Farmers play a multitude of roles, generating important economic, environmental and cultural outcomes, and ALUS Mississippi-Rideau will help them steward the environment that we all rely on. Guided by a local Partnership Advisory Committee (PAC), no less than half of which is comprised by local farmers, the ALUS model ensures that projects are determined at the local level to address the community’s environmental and economic priorities.

Community Links

Contact your ALUS coordinators

MVCA Website

RVCA Website

RVCA Social

MVCA Social

News & Events

ALUS Announces a New Community in Ontario

May 12, 2022

ALUS Lanark will support farmers in creating important natural infrastructure projects, southwest of Ottawa. A landscape in Lanark County highlighting the close quarters of rural communities and natural features.ALUS is pleased to welcome a new community to its...