Take Action to Make our Rivers Healthy
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Stewardship means taking action to protect something you care about. As you explore and play on the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers, become a river steward and do your part to help them stay healthy and beautiful. |
How you can make a difference!
Conserve Water: Water Use Calculator
- Indoors
- Don't leave the sink running while you brush your teeth
- Take shorter showers
- Make sure the dishwasher and closes washer are full before running them
- If you are washing dishes by hand, don't let the water run
- Install water efficient faucets and shower heads
- Check all water fixtures for leaks, and fix or replace all faucets that leak
Perform a dye test to see if your toilets are leaking. To check if a toilet is leaking, remove the cover from the tank and add a couple drops of food coloring. Wait 5 minutes (without using the toilet), If any of the dye has entered the bowling that time, your toilet is leaking!
- Outdoors
- Don't over-water your lawn!
- If you must irrigate, plan to water just one day a week and obey town water restrictions.
- if you have a swimming pool, use a cover to cut the loss of water by evaporation by 90%
- Place rain barrels underneath your downspouts. The rainwater can be used for plants and trees, or to wash a car.
- Mulch around plants to reduce evaporation and save hundreds of gallons of water a year.
- Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your driveway, sidewalks, and decks.
Prevent Stormwater Pollution:
- What is stormwater pollution?
- When rain or melting snow picks up trash or chemicals, that's stormwater pollution. It's the fastest growing type of water pollution in Massachusetts.
- Why do we care?
- Stormwater pollution fouls our lakes, rivers, and streams. That's bad news for our water supplies and outdoor activities -- and also for the fish and wildlife that live there.
- What you can do? Learn more about what you can do about stormwater pollution
- Clean up pet waste and through it in the trash to prevent harmful bacteria from washing into local waterways.
- Use a rain barrell to capture roof runoff
- Reduce lawn watering
- Wash your car on the lawn
- Reduce fertiizers and pesticides
In Your Community
- Join your watershed organization
- Become a Citizen Scientist and join the water quality monitoring team
- Help remove invasive plants from the rivers
- Participate in river cleanups
- Practice Leave No Trace (LNT) Learn the 7 Principles
- Let your local politicians know that they should protect our rivers!
ACTIVITY:
What three things will you do to protect our rivers this summer? Make them a habit!
Let us know what you are doing and why you chose them. Email summerquestprogram@gmail.com.
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