Watershed Planning

APC & Nemasket River Watershed Management and Climate Action Plan

The integrity of the Assawompset Ponds Complex (APC) and Nemasket River depends upon the quality of their surrounding watershed and managing our uses and impacts.

A Watershed Management Plan sets up priorities for implementing projects that improve the APC and Nemasket; a Climate Action Plan extends the strategies under consideration to meet future conditions.

A Watershed Management and Climate Action Plan for the APC and Nemasket River will lay out the key strategies for balancing the complementary, though sometimes competing, functions of the APC and Nemasket River, especially in the areas of water supply maintenance, floodwater management, stormwater infiltration, habitat enhancement, and recreational access.

Whereas a traditional watershed management plan would contextualize recommendations in current watershed conditions, the Climate Action Plan component will add in an evaluation of watershed needs based on anticipated future climate change scenarios.

The plan will be designed to incorporate problem statements, goals, strategies and benchmarks of success for both existing conditions and issues and anticipated climate conditions in 2050 (assuming a high emissions scenario). Plan recommendations will include engineered and nature-based solutions for near-term and long-term floodwater mitigation, improved water quality, and consistent water supply in the APC as climate change occurs.

Project Timeline

Refer to this page regularly for updates about the time, location, and participation details for our public meetings as we move into Y2 of the project!

Or sign up for project updates and to receive the Zoom link via email by completing the form available by clicking: here.

Click on the video link included to watch a kid-friendly video explaining some of the key concepts relevant to this section.

Floodplain Management

Location: Lakeville - Ted Williams Camp

Date: Sept. 29th, 2021 - 5 - 7 pm

Review the meeting materials here

Watch a recorded version of the online workshop here

Water Quality

Location: Taunton - Hopewell Park

Date: October 13th, 2021 - 5 - 7 pm

Review the meeting materials here

Watch a recorded version of the online workshop here

Water Supply

This meeting has been postponed to the Spring. Please refer to this project webpage for more updates in the future.

Ecology and Unique Habitats

Location: Middleborough Town Hall

Date: March 23rd, 2022 - 5 - 7 pm

Review the meeting materials here

Watch a recorded version of the online workshop here

Recreation and Stewardship

Location: Rochester (Specific location TBA)

Date: April 13th, 2022 - 5 - 7 pm

Zoom link: here

Watch a recorded version of the online workshop here

Land Development

Location: Freetown Council on Aging

Date: April 27th, 2022 - 5 - 7 pm

Zoom link: here

Open House - Meet your plan!

Location: Lakeville (Specific location TBA)

Date: June 1st, 2022 - 6 - 8 pm

Zoom link: here

A diagram of the two-year project timeline and its five task components

The APC-Nemasket Digital Watershed Tour

Learn about the important dimensions of the watershed in our kid-friendly video series entitled 'The APC-Nemasket Digital Watershed Tour'. Each chapter walks through a dimension of the watershed, from the uplands, to the role of flora and fauna.

Chapter 1: The Watershed

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 1, learn about the different dimensions of the watershed, the intersections between human and natural actions, and actions that you can do to protect the watershed on your property and in your community.

Chapter 2: The Uplands

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 2, learn about the critical role that watershed uplands play in maintaining water quality, providing a home for different animals and plant species, as well as the steps that you can take to protect the uplands.

Chapter 3: The Ponds

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 3, learn about the important roles that the ponds play in regulating water flow and rates of the Nemasket river, serving as a home for mussels and fish, and the steps that we can take to care for the ponds and maintain the water's quality.

Chapter 4: The Nemasket River

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 4, learn about how the river provides oxygen and a home to different animal and plant species, and how human interventions have changed the dimensions of the watershed. Finally learn more about how you can help prevent toxic pollution and runoff from impacting the Nemasket river.

Chapter 5: Dynamic Equilibrium

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 5, learn about how the Nemasket river balances the processes of sedimentation and stream flow, and the importance of the cross sectional area accessible to a river. Finally learn about the steps that we can take to ensure the Nemasket river has a healthy dynamic equilibrium.

Chapter 6: Floodplains and Wetlands

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 6, learn about the role that floodplains have in storing excess water from storm surges and floods, as well as the impacts that humans have had on the watershed's floodplains. Also learn about how wetlands serve important biological and ecosystem functions, and what we can to do maintain this natural wonder.

Chapter 7: Flora and Fauna

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 7, learn about some of the animal species that call the APC and Nemasket river home, and about the important role that monitoring wildlife species populations plays in maintaining a healthy river.

Chapter 8: Climate Change

Watch on Youtube!

In Chapter 8, walk through the impact that climate change will have on the watershed's ecosystems, water levels, and the impacts that this will have on how community members interact with the watershed. Also learn about some sources of climate change that we can all take steps to address and minimize.

Why the APC and Nemasket? And Why Now?

A Regionally Unique and Significant Resource

The APC and Nemasket River play numerous important roles for both the natural ecology and the people of southeastern Massachusetts. The APC is the state's largest natural pond system and is the drinking water source for approximately 250,000 people in the cities of New Bedford, Taunton, and portions of other nearby towns. It is a scenic residential and recreation area for pondside communities, spanning the towns of Lakeville, Middleborough, Rochester and Freetown. Water flows out of the Ponds through one principal outlet - the Nemasket River. The Nemasket is the longest herring run in the state of Massachusetts, with fish making an annual trip from Narragansett Bay, up the Taunton and Nemasket Rivers into their breeding grounds at the Ponds. It is a significant habitat area for fish, birds, wetland and mammal species - now including a resurgence of the loon population!

While the Nemasket and APC are precious in so many ways, the management challenge for this system becomes clear when we consider that water quality and flow are affected by land use throughout their combined 44,900-acre watershed area. In equal measure, the waters of the APC and Nemasket River can have some negative effects on surrounding communities during periods of flood and intense storms.

Bedford Street in Lakeville in an aerial image as it runs north to south along the edge of the Assawompset Pond Complex

An aerial view of the northern end of Long Pond and the eastern edge of Assawompset Pond, intersected by Route 105.

An image of a stakeholder engagement meeting where participants from the Assawompset Pond Complex Management Team give their input into top priorities in the watershed.

The APC Management Team identifies floodwater issues around the Assawompset Pond Complex and Nemasket River

Building on a Track Record of Historic and Recent Work

The need for better stewardship of the APC and Nemasket River, especially in the form of a watershed management plan, is widely articulated across local MVP priorities. The Freetown, Lakeville, and Middleborough MVP Plans all raise this stewardship need as a priority action item. In June 2019, Lakeville, Freetown and Rochester completed a Regional MVP Addendum. The top environmental action listed is “Update the Assawompset Ponds Management Plan with respect to the MVP process and data; include pond levels, infrastructure, herring run, Long Pond issues, other chronic problems/issues.” This priority is especially relevant for the ponds complex as there are several stakeholders with an interest in managing water levels. The communities surrounding the ponds have a stake in flood abatement, while the water supplier entities have an interest in storing water for potential future drought conditions. This proposed Watershed Management and Climate Resilience plan can promote active management coordinated across stakeholder needs.

Pursuing a watershed management plan at this time also leverages recent work completed in the APC and Nemasket watersheds. In early 2020, a grant from the Division of Ecological Restoration allowed for a reexamination of recent plans, as well as historical studies, reports, and recommendations going back forty years to 1980. The watershed management plan comes as a next step after that effort, and will be informed by an on-going hydraulic and hydrological study of the upper Nemasket, a WMOST model being conducted for the watershed by the EPA to pinpoint possible nature based solutions for addressing climate impacts, and community engagement for solutions along the river.

Plan Development Tasks Breakdown

Task 1 - Steering Committee

The Assawompset Pond Complex Management Team is serving as the project Steering Committee, with additional membership from staff and officials from Lakeville, Taunton, New Bedford, and Rochester. The Steering Committee is indispensable to ensuring that the final plan recommendations are actionable and fit with local goals and priorities.

steering committee meeting summaries

Task 3 - Data Collection and Synthesis

The data synthesis and collection portion of the project will take place in year one. A specific portion of the data collection effort will be aimed at gathering estimated climate change impacts on water and precipitation levels, habitat types, and other conditions in the APC. Data summaries will be brought into the content of public events, as well as the existing conditions and anticipated future climate conditions sections of the plan.

Task 5 - Write the Plan

In year one, the project team will write the existing conditions and anticipated climate impacts sections, as well as the problem statements for all of the plan’s thematic sections. In year two, the project team will proceed to write the goals, action strategies, prioritization/implementation plan, and benchmarks of success sections, all informed by public community discussions.

Task 2 - Public Engagement

The public outreach component of the task will be divided into two phases: material preparation (project webpage, press releases, advertisements, material translation, meeting logistics) in year one and in-person events in year two. Conditions permitting, the year two public meetings will consist of six meetings that rotate between the six APC stakeholder communities.

Meeting Information (when available)

Task 4 - Regulatory Review

A key method for promoting nature-based solutions to watershed management will involve understanding the regulatory frameworks, particularly in the four pondside communities, that either incentivize or prohibit low impact development strategies. In year one, the project team will focus on researching the regional operational standards and MOU’s. In year two, we will coordinate local bylaw reviews with the six thematic public workshop events.

Research on exisiting conditions in the watershed

As part of the APC-Nemasket team's efforts to better understand current and future conditions in the watershed, the team conducted research on various factors within the watershed. This research foundation will inform the team's future actions and recommendations.

Water Quality

Examining the rate of release, accumulation, and dispersion of various nutrients in the watershed is important to maintaining water health.