EPA partners meet at the NRWA.

In 2004, the NRWA and three partner organizations were awarded a Targeted Watershed Initiative grant of $770,192 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – one of only fourteen awarded nationwide that year. Along with Beaver Brook Association, New England Forestry Foundation, and the Trust for Public Land, the NRWA has been undertaking the "Protecting Today's Water for Tomorrow" project to proactively combat threats to drinking water in the Squannacook-Nissitissit sub-basin for the past three years.

The Squannacook-Nissitissit sub-basin covers about twenty-five percent of the entire Nashua River watershed, and includes all or part of the Massachusetts towns of Ashby, Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, and Townsend and the New Hampshire towns of Brookline, Greenville, Hollis, Mason, Milford, New Ipswich, and Wilton.

Dozens of state and local organizations, businesses, municipalities, and professional individuals are providing in-kind services and support valued at an additional $400,000+, making the total project worth over $1.1 million.

The four-year effort is comprised of seven distinct project components, each of which contributes to the overarching approach of protecting key water resources by conserving key land parcels.

Aspens stand in Groton, MA.

Project #1- Land Stewardship & Land Protection Project identifies priority land parcels and presents information to the landowners that may increase their willingness to permanently protect their land and/or enhance their stewardship of it – thereby increasing protection of key water resources.

Project #2- Market-Based Forestry Cooperative Project studies the feasibility of starting a market-based forest cooperative in this area that would assist forest landowners to derive forestry-related income and thus dissuade landowners from selling off or developing their properties, which might negatively impact water resources.

Project #3- Forester Training Project trains foresters and loggers regarding the positive impact of forestland on water resources so that these values can be effectively communicated to the foresters’ clients and thus increase the clients’ understanding and willingness to undertake best management practices that protect water quality.

Project #4- Conservation Restoration & Demonstration Project demonstrates relevant Best Management Practices to landowners and resource managers who need to be aware of the role of their actions in protecting water quality. Project #4 also undertakes restoration of lands whose water quality is negatively impacted by invasive plant species.

NRWA Smart Growth Circuit Rider works with communities to design bylaws and regulations to balance development and natural resource protection.

Project #5- Smart Growth Policy Project researches innovative approaches and policies on the local and state level that will help protect water resources. Project #5 additionally educates and trains municipal boards and other policy makers in the approaches and regulations that protect water resources and also alerts them to conservation finance options.

Project #6- Public Surveying and Messaging Project surveys public attitudes toward financing land protection that protects water quality and also shapes messages that can be more readily communicated to the public on various related topics.

Project #7- Water Quality Sampling Project studies pollution dispersion in the sub-basin, which will help illuminate which specific land areas are likely causing water quality problems. Project #7 also studies water quality, including stormwater, at targeted sites, which will provide baseline data against which to measure future results from the overall land protection effort.

Gulf Brook in Pepperell, MA.

Each of the seven projects addresses the main environmental problem that water quality and quantity will be severely compromised in the future unless key land parcels are well stewarded and/or proactively protected. The projects use a variety of approaches to address institutional, social, and economic issues that contribute to the main problem. In combination, the seven projects proactively increase the protection and stewardship of land parcels that are key to improving water quality and protecting the water resources and drinking water upon which we, the public, depend.

For more information on the "Protecting Today's Water for Tomorrow" project, please contact Al Futterman, NRWA's Land Programs and Outreach Director at 978/448-0299 or e-mail Al Futterman.