The Five-Year Action Plan is a product of the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative Nashua River Watershed Team, a collaboration of watershed interests consisting of state and federal environmental agencies, municipal agencies, non-profit organizations, citizens, and other interested parties.

About the Massachusetts Watershed Initiative (MWI)

The Nashua River Valley

The MWI was launched in 1993 by the Commonwealth's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA). The MWI is a statewide effort focused within the natural boundaries of each of the Commonwealth's 27 watersheds. The mission of the MWI is to improve water quality and to assist in the restoration and/or protection of each watershed's natural resources.

In the Nashua River watershed, the MWI activities are coordinated by the EOEA Watershed Team Leader, JoAnne Carr. For more information about the EOEA Nashua River Watershed Team, go to www.state.ma.us/envir/mwi/nashua.htm

Objectives of the Plan

The Five-Year Action Plan is intended to serve as a working document to guide the Nashua River Watershed Team partners and agencies in directing staff and resources. By outlining specific strategies to mitigate priority watershed problems, it may serve to promote integrated watershed natural resource protection or improvement.

Trees on rock face along the Nashua River in North Fitchburg

The environmental priorities identified in this comprehensive Five-Year Action Plan may be used to focus local and regional regulatory decision-making and to target state grant programs and other resources such as educational and technical assistance programs. The Nashua River Watershed Team's Five-Year Action Plan is compatible with the NRWA's long-range plan, the 1995 to 2020 Vision for the Nashua River Watershed.

The Five-Year Action Plan is organized on a sub-watershed basis. There are 22 distinct sub-watersheds in the larger Nashua River watershed. See Subwatershed Map (35 KB).

The Five-Year Action Plan is addressed to a wide public audience, in addition to the Nashua River Watershed Team partners. Major components in the Five-Year Action Plan creation include stakeholder participation, community involvement, and public review. Additionally, public participation in identifying problems and their possible solutions carries with it some measure of responsibility for implementing the Five-Year Action Plan's final recommendations along with the MWI Nashua River Watershed Team partners and agencies.

Solutions to these problems are not simple, nor are they easily implemented. Taking a collaborative watershed approach can be an effective way to address priority issues.

How Can You Help?

The new "Five Year Action Plan for the Nashua River Watershed" is ready for public review. The Plan is intended for distribution on a CD-ROM or may be viewed on-line, see Five Year Action Plan. Note that the Plan is organized by sub-basin, and you can navigate within the Plan to find both your community and your sub-basin. If you find that an issue of importance to your community has been overlooked, or that there should be a change in the action recommendations, please don't hesitate to discuss it with JoAnne Carr (MWI Nashua Team Leader, 508-792-7423, Ext. 501, e-mail JoAnne.Carr@state.ma.us) or Al Futterman, NRWA's Land Programs and Outreach Director at 978/448-0299 or e-mail at alfutterman@NashuaRiverWatershed.org.