Steward an IISD-ELA Lake
Want to make protecting the world’s fresh water for future generations part of your legacy?
Support our cause
With your gift of $1 million to IISD Experimental Lakes Area, you’ll become an official IISD-ELA Steward.
This means your name will be attached to one of only 58 living lake laboratories (see below for more details) at the world’s freshwater laboratory in northwestern Ontario.
Your contribution will be recognized in IISD-ELA’s internal and external communications, recognizing you as a supporter of the unparallelled work that takes place here.
In partnership with global agencies, governments, and our neighbours on Grand Council Treaty 3 territory, we have been protecting fresh water for more than 5 decades and continue to be at the forefront of critical research—now, you can join us.
By supporting a living lab at IISD-ELA, you’ll help ensure it remains a vital scientific resource and thriving natural ecosystem for generations to come.
To start a conversation, reach out to Louis St-Cyr, Director of Philanthropy, at lst-cyr@iisd.ca.
IISD-ELA Lakes we monitor but don't conduct whole-lake experiments on
Our five Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) lakes have been consistently monitored for chemistry, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish population structure since we opened our doors back in 1968.
LTER lakes play an essential role in our research—improving our understanding of how climate change is impacting boreal lakes. We have discovered that those effects include warmer temperatures, shorter winters and duration of ice cover, darker water, and smaller fish. The data from LTER lakes get more valuable each year as the environment keeps changing: they help us understand the long-term implications of human activity and then make predictions about the future.
These lakes are also critical as reference lakes for experimental research. What the long-term dataset and ongoing monitoring of a lake reveal can then be compared to the changes shown through our experimental manipulation.
IISD-ELA Lakes we conduct whole-lake experiments on
Learn More
If you would like more information or have any questions, please reach out to Erin Bend at ebend@iisd-ela.org.
To donate by cheque, make the cheque payable to IISD Experimental Lakes Area (with the memo notation ‘IISD-ELA Endowment Fund’) and mail to: Attn: Philanthropy; IISD Experimental Lakes Area; 325-111 Lombard Avenue; Winnipeg, MB; R3B 0T4
If you’d like IISD-ELA’s securities transfer form, e-transfer details, or to make a credit card gift over the phone, please contact Cody Sellar at csellar@iisd-ela.org.
Note that our CRA Registered Charity Number is 850309576RR0001.