The Three Mile River Is Worth Protecting!

The Commonwealth agrees!

Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles has designated the Three Mile as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern!

If you have wondered WHY local citizens

are seeking designation of this relatively short river

as a state Area of Critical Environmental Concern,

check out these scenes taken last week at the Boyden Refuge in Taunton.

For more photos of the Boyden in summer, visit my page at Flickr

2008 Wild and Scenic River Run Overnight Trip June 14-15

Everyone is invited to sign up now for the annual two-day TRWA trip on the Taunton River!

This popular TRWA overnight Canoe/Kayak Trip begins on Saturday June 14th on the Nemasket River, traveling to Titicut Reservation in Bridgewater for an evening program, cookout and camping, and then on downriver to Weir Riverfront Park in Taunton on Sunday, June 15th!

Please pre-register as this event is ever more popular.

Registration form and details are now posted on our website.

Please return the form no later than June 6th.

This is always a great event at which you will meet other paddlers and TRWA members. This year paddlers will begin on the Nemasket River and will travel until about 3:00 to the Titicut campsite in Bridgewater. Once there the group will set up tents, start the campfire, and enjoy a meal prepared by Arnie Danielson. The evening will be full of music, stories, and friendship.

All of this will be combined with TRWA's Quarterly Members' Meeting at 6:00 p.m. Saturday night. So come out for the evening program even if you aren't a paddler. Evening entertainment of music and ghost stories will be provided by the Taunton River Folk Festival Troubadours.

For more information, call the TRWA Office, (508) 828-1101 or email Carolyn LaMarre at director@savethetaunton.org.

Small Grants to 12 Taunton River Projects

The Taunton River Watershed Campaign, a coalition of ten environmental and planning organizations, has announced that approximately $15,000 in small grants has been awarded to 12 open space and environmental projects in the Taunton River watershed. Each of the grantees will contribute at least a one to one match in donations and volunteer or professional time to their projects.

The watershed grants include Open Space and Recreation Plans in the communities of Lakeville, Middleborough and Raynham, and to citizens groups in West Bridgewater, Hanson, Plympton and Swansea who are organizing support for the Community Preservation Act.

Also funded were trail improvements at the recently preserved Cole Property in Carver, a public awareness and outreach campaign for the Taunton River Greenway by the Greater Fall River Land Conservancy, a canoe rack at the Bridge Village Heritage Park in Berkley, ecological landscaping at a planned skate park along the Mill River in Taunton, and equipment and training so that the TEAMS organization can combat invasive plants in the Assawompsett Ponds in Middleborough and Lakeville. The grants range from under $500 to $2,500.

The Watershed Campaign’s small grants are open to cities and towns, grassroots groups and nonprofit groups working on conservation issues and land use planning to protect natural resources. This year, priority was given to projects which will result in the permanent protection of significant natural resources, the preparation of municipal open space and recreation plans, and passage of the Community Preservation Act.

Congratulations to all of the grantees!

Municipal Open Space and Recreation Plans:

Middleborough, $2,500
Raynham, $2,500
Lakeville, $2,000

Environmental Projects:

Cole Property Trail Revitalization, Carver Conservation Commission, up to $2,000
Greater Fall River Land Conservancy, public awareness & outreach of the riverfront greenway from Fall River to Freetown, $1,000
TEAMS, invasive plant training and equipment: $624
Taunton Skate Park Committee, river front landscaping and clean up of buffer zone on Mill River parcel, $1,400
Friends of the Park, canoe rack at Berkley’s Bridge Village Heritage Park, $1,400

Community Preservation Act local ballot committees:

West Bridgewater CPA Committee, $500
Preserve Hanson CPA Committee, $500
Plympton Citizens for CPA, $280
Citizens to Preserve Swansea’s Character, $280