The quiet beauty of the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord (SuAsCo) rivers in eastern Massachusetts provides an antidote to our modern lives. They form the 399-square mile SuAsCo watershed. The rivers flow north through mill towns and farms, small cities and suburbs, to pass through the Merrimack River in the City of Lowell. Sections were federally designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers in 1999 for their outstanding recreation, ecology, scenic, and historic resources and place in American literature.

We would like to honor all the ancestral stewards of this land including the Massachusett, Nipmuc, and Pawtucket Nations. We endeavor to be responsible stewards of their traditional and contemporary territories. We recognize their invaluable efforts by continuing the conservation legacy they started as caretakers of our watershed.

The name Assabet is likely from a Nipmuc word for the area’s marshes. The confluence of the Assabet and Sudbury rivers is named Musketaquid, where the waters flow through the grasses.

OARS is committed to the ongoing work of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within our organization so that all may enjoy and benefit from these rivers.

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Board member, steadfast volunteer, and lover of rivers. We are deeply grateful for all you have done for OARS. Your legacy gift, along with the generous support of the Sudbury Foundation, made the creation of this website possible.