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

Bigger Ripples for Your Local Advocacy

I spent Saturday in the company of nearly 200 individuals who are committed to social change - and came home energized! The occasion was the 7th annual conference, at U-Mass Boston, of the Organizer's Collaborative, a non-profit association of tech wizards - and the rest of us who work in the trenches for social justice, the environment, and other causes.

The combination of brain power, technical imagination, and activists produced a real high - a vision that by using the Internet to pull in the many people who CARE about the Taunton River - but may not know WHY they are needed or HOW to help - we will SAVE THE TAUNTON!

For those of you who are already on line reading this and want to know how to help, please visit our page called "The Ripple Effect" at Campaign.SaveTheTaunton.org website.

I've started a list of awesome Web 2.0 tools that you can see at my "del.icio.us" page of links: http://del.icio.us/TauntonWatershedCampaign

In the meantime, if you want to sign on to our Citizens Network, please email campaign@savethetaunton.org!

Voices for the Watershed

Do you have a story to tell about a favorite place in the Taunton River Watershed?

Do you have photos that you've taken that illustrate the parklands, protected open space, farms, and woodlands of our watershed? Please call the Campaign at 1-866-393-TRWA or email us and share your stories and photos.

We are building content for the website and printed materials and hope to include photos of the major tributaries of the Taunton. There are 9!

Heading upstream from the mouth of the Taunton:

The Assonet
The Segregansett
The Three-Mile
The Mill
The Forge
The Nemasket
The Winnetuxet
The Matfield
The Town

The Taunton River is formed by the confluence of the Matfield and the Town Rivers.

We also have a "lost" or buried tributary in Fall River, originally named for the waterfalls at the Quequehan River, which now is underground. See the website of Green Futures for more info on this urban tributary, which is canoeable in its upper reaches.

Each of the major "tribs" has a number of smaller rivers and named streams which contribute.
The Mill River, for instance, which joins the main stem in Taunton, is made up of the Canoe River and waters in Winnecunnet Pond, Watson Pond and Lake Sabbatia. The Three-Mile River is made up of the Wading and the Rumford Rivers.