If voters in Harvard and some nearby towns agree this spring, the Nashua River and two of its tributaries could soon become part of the nation’s Wild and Scenic Rivers System, joining the likes of the Big Sur River in California and the Allagash in Maine. That’s a remarkable tribute to those who helped clean up the Nashua, which was once ranked as one of the most polluted rivers in the country.
Warrant Article 37 at the May 5 Annual Town Meeting will ask Harvard residents to decide whether to accept a voluntary stewardship plan recommending that the three rivers be designated Wild and Scenic Rivers. As preparation for the decision, a public information meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, at the beginning of the selectmen’s meeting.
It’s been 50 years since Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. After decades of national emphasis on hydroelectric dams and industrial use, that law recognized the value of free-flowing and unpolluted rivers. Since then, stretches of more than 200 rivers and creeks throughout the country have been designated for preservation under the act.
In 2014, at the initiative of U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, Congress passed the Nashua River Wild and Scenic River Study Act, to determine whether the Nashua, Squannacook, and Nissitissit rivers qualified for inclusion in the national program (see map). That act led to the formation of a committee with representatives from 11 towns along the three rivers to develop a voluntary stewardship plan and study whether the rivers were eligible for inclusion under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Last month the completed study reported that the Nashua River and its tributaries are noteworthy for the biological diversity they support, including rare dragonflies, freshwater mussels, and Blanding’s turtles. With their cool waters, the Squannacook and Nissitissit attract fly-fishing enthusiasts. Some 8,000 people canoe or kayak on the rivers, while bicyclists enjoy the adjoining 11-mile Nashua River Rail Trail. And the oxbows along the Nashua River in Harvard constitute one of the largest freshwater wetlands in eastern Massachusetts. The study recommends that the three rivers be designated Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers.
A partnership river
A partnership river in the program is one that flows mainly through land that is privately owned or under state or local control, rather than within federal lands. In New England, nearly all rivers designated wild and scenic fall into the partnership category. In Massachusetts, the Taunton, Westfield, and Concord-Assabet-Sudbury rivers are already designated Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Should the Nashua River’s designation be approved by both local voters and Congress, the study committee would be succeeded by a local stewardship council with members from the 11 towns. While the council would have no regulatory power, it would allow the neighboring towns to cooperate in protecting water quality, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and other issues of mutual concern.
In an introductory letter to the stewardship plan, Harvard Selectwoman Lucy Wallace, who chaired the study committee, wrote, “Designation will not stop development, rezone private land, or change property rights. Land use controls on private lands continue to be solely a matter of state and local jurisdiction.”
While the program generally works to preserve rivers that flow freely, the law allows some existing dams to remain for historic reasons. Harvard’s Ice House Dam on the Nashua River near the border with Ayer and Shirley is among three working dams that are grandfathered into the proposed plan.
If all 11 towns accept the plan at their 2018 town meetings, the proposal then goes to Congress. With congressional approval, the Nashua River and its tributaries would join others throughout New England and the nation as waterways that fulfill “vital national conservation purposes,” in the words of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
