Blackstone River Watershed Council / Friends of the Blackstone
Our Mission: To restore, enhance and preserve the physical, historical and cultural integrity of the Blackstone River, its watershed and its eco-system, through public advocacy, education, recreation, stewardship and the promotion of our unique Blackstone Valley resource.
We are a Rhode Island non-profit organization dedicated to making the Blackstone River fishable and swimmable by 2015. Our programs are dedicated to protecting, preserving and enhancing the natural habitat of local river wildlife and creating recreational programs for the local residents to enjoy.
All of our programs provide opportunities to volunteer, including cleanups, education and work with local municipalities to bring this great river and its surrounding watersheds back to its natural and majestic state.
Latest News
Do you have an old toaster, Christmas lights, television, 8-track player? Don’t throw it away, recycle it. The Eco Depot has set up locations all over Rhode Island for dropping off those gadgets. Here is the schedule. Please use the phone number the bottom of the flyer to set up a drop-off time (it really [...]
We will be starting at 10am. Please contact Keith at KeithHainley@BlackstoneRiver.org or 401-301-3761 with any questions or to let me know you are going to be there. Meeting places: Good Shepard School parking lot, 1210 Mendon Road Chaplin Perez parking lot, 37 center street Kevin K Coleman School parking lot, 96 second avenue The purpose [...]
Each year thousands of volunteers gather to make the Blackstone River and surrounding watersheds a cleaner place for native plants and animals. Here are a few pictures from our cleanups from 2011. The areas that we focused on last year were Sycamore Landing and Burrillville. Share on Facebook
This will be our first major event out of our new facility in Manville. We will meet at our new facility located at 100 New River Road, Lincoln, RI. Join us. Registration is from 8:30am-9:00am. Pizza will be served at 12:00pm. Areas to clean along the bike path and the river. Volunteer for 1/2 day [...]
We need to volunteers to help us with cleaning the river bank from Central Falls to Pawtucket as well as shore and bike path litter. We will meet at Central Falls Landing 8:30-9:00 for registration. After the cleanup, there will be pizza at Central Falls Landing at 12:00pm. Please contact Keith at KeithHainley@BlackstoneRiver.org or 401-301-3761 [...]
We are pleased to share our progress report for the Scott Brook Project. The Scott Brook Project is a collaboration of three groups, The Blackstone River Watershed Council, The Cumberland Land Trust, and the Cumberland Conservation Commission. Under the authorization of the Town of Cumberland, the project so far has utilized 38 volunteers and over [...]
On Sunday October 16th, the Blackstone River 3rd Annual Duck Race was held. This year the river was flowing much faster than in prior years due to the higher amount of rainfall in recent weeks. The race was held this year in the Canal which ensured river safety and assisted in making the recovery of [...]
We are pleased to provide you with some highlights of our projects, partnerships and accomplishments over the past year. Check out our annual newsletter for more details. View the newsletter. Please note, the newsletter requires Adobe Acrobat reader in order to view it. If you would like to get an email version of our newsletter [...]
EPA’s technical reports are being released and made available electronically on the web. The human health and ecological risk assessment reports (dated July 2011) are now available and can be found at the EPA superfund project site. Note: This link will take you to the ecological and health risk assessments for the J.M. Mills Landfill [...]
On Wednesday, Aug 17, we are pleased to announce Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior will be visiting the Blackstone River Valley. The schedule currently is for his arrival at 1:45 in Ashton. We hope you can come out and be part of this historic event. It would be great if you could be there [...]
Current Projects
We are pleased to share our progress report for the Scott Brook Project. The Scott Brook Project is a collaboration of three groups, The Blackstone River Watershed Council, The Cumberland Land Trust, and the Cumberland Conservation Commission. Under the authorization of the Town of Cumberland, the project so far has utilized 38 volunteers and over [...]
EPA’s technical reports are being released and made available electronically on the web. The human health and ecological risk assessment reports (dated July 2011) are now available and can be found at the EPA superfund project site. Note: This link will take you to the ecological and health risk assessments for the J.M. Mills Landfill [...]
The BRWC / FOB is working on a new environmental program at the Peterson / Puritan Superfund Site. The history or the site, program details and map of the area is now available to review. View the program page for the Peterson / Puritan Superfund Site project View the map of the Peterson / Puritan [...]
One of the big long term projects that the BRWC is working on. Today we no longer use many of the dams on the river that were built to power the economy. Many of these remain in place, continuing to not only block fish from their native spawning grounds, but keeping wildlife and people from [...]