Nashua River Watershed-wide Nature-based Solutions Project

Community specific information:  Fitchburg     Leominster     Ashburnham     Groton     Pepperell

Under an MVP Action Grant, the NRWA is working with the communities of Ashburnham, Fitchburg, Groton, Leominster, and Pepperell to understand local climate change issues and ways that we can use Nature-based Solutions (sometimes called green infrastructure) to address those issues. Read NRWA Climate Change and the Nashua River Watershed produced by the NRWA’s Climate Impact Committee.

The communities involved in this project have identified flooding, drought, and extreme temperatures to be key issues that are negatively affecting human health and safety, drinking water supplies, and ecological resources.  Nature-based Solutions can help to mitigate these impacts. 

What are Nature-based Solutions? 

Nature has evolved in ways that buffer storms and adapt to change. Many of the most effective strategies to address the impacts of climate change are based on those natural systems. Many of the impacts we are facing are exacerbated by the ways we have changed the natural landscape and reduced the effectiveness of nature's tools. Impermeable surfaces, loss and disconnection of wetlands and floodplains, fragmentation of the landscape, barriers to the movement of wildlife, loss of forests and meadows, and many more human changes exacerbate the impacts of a warming climate. By actions such as increasing infiltration, slowing the flow of stormwater, reconnecting the landscape, conserving and managing our forests and meadows, and re-creating a more resilient environment, we can not only buffer impacts but also create an environment better adapted to the future. More about Nature-based Solutions.

Community-driven Process: Gathering Community Concerns and Ideas

Kick-off Community Leadership Meetings

NRWA together with project partner BSC Group kicked off the project by holding a meeting with key leadership in each project community. The NRWA and BSC Group gave introductory presentations on the project and the concept of Nature-based Solutions.

View NRWA Municipal Kickoff MVP Presentation (PDF) and Kickoff Video. (3:12 min.)

View BSC Group’s Nashua River Watershed MVP Natural Climate Solutions Project video. (11:07 min.)

Community Meeting One (in-person)

NRWA conducted extensive outreach to bring members of each project community together to gather their knowledge on issues facing their community. Materials promoting community engagement in these meetings were prepared in the three most common locally spoken languages in an effort to reach a broad audience. View flyers in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

The first meetings were held in-person in each of the five participant communities. The BSC Group gave an introductory presentation on the project and the concept of Nature-based Solutions. NRWA staff provided instructions to participants who then moved into small groups where they held focused conversations on community specific climate and environmental issues, attendee ideas for solutions, and identifying specific locations in the community that could benefit from Nature-based Solutions to address an existing issue.

Town specific information can be viewed by selecting the community at the top of this page.

Community Meeting Two (on zoom)

Those who participated in the first community meetings were encouraged to attend a second meeting to be conducted by three zooms, one for Fitchburg, one for Leominster, and a combined zoom for Ashburnham, Groton, and Pepperell. Consultants from BSC Group presented maps showing locations of sites that were identified for consideration at the first meeting.  Attendees reviewed each site to further discuss the issues at the site and potential natural solutions that could be applied. They worked to create a refined focus list of sites to be further explored by site walk to determine their appropriateness to be included in this project.

Town specific information can be viewed by selecting the community at the top of this page.

Community Site Visits

Next steps will see project partners and local citizens conducting site visits at each site identified in the second community meeting. Additionally, in support of this project, the NRWA has coordinated with the Devens Enterprise Commission to conduct a tour of Nature-based Solution sites in Devens allowing attendees to see these Solutions in action. At left, tour participants are viewing an example of a bioinfiltration basin where a curb cut allows rainfall from storms to move off the parking lot into an area of soil and natural plantings, slowing the flow of the water and allowing it to infiltrate into the ground rather than run off into the nearest waterway. Photo courtesy of the Devens Enterprise Commission.

Town specific information can be viewed by selecting the community at the top of this page. 

About this Grant Project

The NRWA is serving as the lead coordinator on “City of Fitchburg/Nashua River Watershed-Wide Nature-based Solutions Project”, a $400K MVP Action Grant awarded to the cities of Fitchburg and Leominster, and the towns of Ashburnham, Groton, and Pepperell for this two-year project.  

The NRWA will work with the five focus communities to develop a plan to address these issues, including:

• An interactive tool kit with maps showing locations of suggested Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in 5 focus municipalities
• An explanation, with pictures of what each NBS is and how it is best implemented
• Outreach and education in the cities and towns, including educational programming in public schools in the five focus municipalities

The information and recommendations developed for these five municipalities will be transferable to other communities throughout the watershed. Watershed-wide maps will be developed that identify the soils and locations most amendable to NBS. The NRWA will develop a website that includes these maps and a watershed-wide Nature-based Solution Plan accessible to all 32 watershed communities.

This MVP grant was awarded by the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program, which is administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).

For questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., NRWA Conservation and Climate Resilience Specialist, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., NRWA Climate Resiliency Coordinator & Educator.