It All Started with a Phone Call

By Julia Blatt, Executive Director Emerita, Massachusetts Rivers Alliance

In 1987, I was an aide in Congressman Chet Atkins’ district office in Lowell, newly tasked with handling constituent requests concerning the environment. After a few days with no calls, I called environmental organizations to see if anyone needed our help. (I was very young and didn’t realize Chet didn’t need me to drum up business!)

When I asked Allen Morgan, then Executive Director of SVT, if there was anything the congressman could do to help, he said, “Get Chet to make the Sudbury River a Wild and Scenic River.” Allen worried that if the Quabbin Reservoir ever failed, the Sudbury River might be diverted as a water supply for Boston. He thought that the Wild and Scenic designation could prevent that.

This simple request kicked off a 12-year journey that involved the federal government, eight municipal governments, SVT, OAR, and a multitude of volunteers. (OAR, or the Organization for the Assabet River, evolved into OARS and now works to protect the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord Rivers.)

Having never heard of a Wild and Scenic River, I contacted staff at the National Park Service (NPS) in Boston, who explained that most designated rivers were located in the western U.S., where they flowed through federal land and were managed by the federal government with little local involvement. In contrast, the east had lots of small, privately owned plots of land and a very active and involved citizenry. Many people thought eastern rivers did not belong in the program, but the Boston NPS staff fervently disagreed.

To qualify for Wild and Scenic designation, a river had to be free-flowing (no dams!) and possess some outstanding characteristics, such as beauty or wildlife habitat or historical significance. The NPS staff and I worked with representatives from SVT and OAR to evaluate whether the Sudbury was a good candidate. We focused on a 29-mile Y-shaped section of the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers.

We recruited a few river champions to reach out to the eight communities along this section of the rivers to explain the designation and seek support for a legislative study. Despite initial resistance, the final decision was unanimous: All eight towns formally requested that Congressman Atkins file legislation for a study that would determine whether the Y-shaped segment could qualify for the Wild and Scenic designation.

The study legislation passed in November 1990, and it took nearly another decade of research and bureaucratic delay before President Clinton signed the legislation awarding the Wild and Scenic designation on April 9, 1999. Little did Allen Morgan know what his (probably) half-joking suggestion would start!

Ironically, the designation may not protect the Sudbury from becoming a water source (that decision lies with the Commonwealth), but it does protect against activities initiated, funded, or permitted by the federal government that could harm the rivers’ outstanding resource values.

And of course the designation brought benefits we never anticipated: bridge improvements, funding for invasive plant removal, river trails and signs, improved access, education programs, and an annual RiverFest. I’m very proud to have been part of the very large village that made this happen for our wonderful rivers.

This article originally appeared in the April 2018 edition of The Wren, SVT's print newsletter.