EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The municipalities within the Ten Mile River and Narragansett/Mount Hope Bay Watersheds are at a crossroads in planning to meet the conservation, recreation and open space needs of their citizens over the next several years. While great deal of time and effort is being spent on updating local Open Space Plans, Master Plans, Community Action Statements and growth management related studies, it has become very apparent that how we plan regionally may be one of the most important tasks we undertake. Our shared regional resources, including, water supplies, natural land riparian corridors, cultural resources, historical resources, archaeological resources, and numerous others, continue to be threatened and encroached upon, as we continue to grow.

Growth is inevitable. It is not necessarily unwelcome - indeed, it can be - beneficial if properly planned. It does not have to result in sprawl and the loss of local character. The Commonwealth's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), as part of its Watershed Initiative, has also recently focused a great deal of fiscal and physical resources on regional, watershed based planning efforts. EOEA has, in the past two years, supported: the North Attleborough/Plainville West Side Growth Study; the Bungay Conservation and Oak Hill recreation acquisitions in Attleboro; the River Aware monitoring effort in Swansea; the Coles Brook Study in Seekonk; a Watershed Action Plan for then Ten Mile River; open space plan updates in Plainville, Wrentham, Seekonk, Attleboro, North Attleborough, Swansea and Rehoboth, and; the preparation of this plan, a Regional Open Space and Recreation Plan, for the Ten Mile River and Narragansett/Mount Hope Bay Watersheds.

The process of working with several municipalities to construct a plan of this nature, for a geographic area defined by its watersheds, is without precident in Massachusetts. This plan was built from the ground up by the participants. Planning with a facilitator and technical advisor, the goals, objectives and needs outlined in this plan reflect what was "brought to the table" by the communities, specifically: the need to improve regional water quality; the need to develop through trails and greenways; the need to increase the amount of permanently protected open land; the need to continue to meet as an officially delegated Regional Open Space Committee; the need to promote regulatory consistency in construct and application, throughout the region, and; the need to assume a single watershed identity in order to strengthen the sense of regionalism and better promote the causes of the region as a whole.

The Regional Open Space and Recreation Plan is a tool by which we can connect to local plans, and vice versa, in order to better preserve the qualities of both community and life on a watershed-wide basis.

On June 9, 1999, speaking to a crowded auditorium at the Moakley Center on the campus of Bridgewater State College, addressing the issue of open space preservation and working together to make it happen, EOEA Secretary Bob Durand said:

"Not only have we lost our open spaces, farmland and scenic vistas,
but we have witnessed the bulldozing of our historic landscapes…we
are now becoming increasingly aware of the cost of sprawl on our rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, coastal waters and water supplies."

"This is [community preservation of open space] about maintaining
community character and preserving what is important to the fabric of
our communities."

"We need to give them [municipalities] the tools they need to chart the
future and preserve the quality of life."