Education

Knowledge is power. We believe that every single person can make a difference in the world around them when they are provided with the necessary resources, whether it’s as personal as adding water conservation techniques to your everyday life or as large-scale as implementing green infrastructure to prevent pollution into the Charles.

To accomplish our goals, CRWA needs the help and support of those who live and work in the watershed. CRWA engages with the public about the Charles River and shares our expertise in river restoration through workshops, classroom visits, and online resources. CRWA offers training and outreach to a variety of different audiences including other water or environmental professionals, municipal employees, school children, students, and watershed residents.

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Be a Good River Neighbor

Tips for Water Conservation & Green Landscaping

Want to make your property more river-friendly? There are lots of actions, both small and large, that homeowners can take to support healthy local waterways. Whether you live right on the river or further “upstream” in the watershed, whether you are a seasoned gardener or a novice, there are lots of great resources available to help you get started on your journey to a “green” property. Every bit helps, small steps can have a big impact!

A Guide to Planting a Home Rain Garden

Lakeside Resident Workshop Materials

​This project was generously funded in part by an MVP Action Grant to the Town of Wrentham, in partnership with Fuss & O'Neill.

WATER CONSERVATION RESOURCES

• Greenscaping Guide from North South Rivers
• Lessons Learned: Barriers to Implementing Healthy and Water Smart Landscaping 
• Summertime Watering Tips
• Water Smart Gardens
• Water Smart Lawns
• Water Smart Landscaping Resources

What can I do to help the Charles?

Volunteer

• ​With more than half a dozen different volunteer opportunities, there are a variety of different ways you can offer your time and expertise to support a Clean Charles.

Practice water smart landscaping

• Whether you live on a tiny lot in Cambridge or Boston or an expansive estate in the Upper Watershed, we have tips for what you can do to make your property a bit more water friendly.

plant a rain garden

• For residents who want to take the next step in environmentally friendly lawn practices, we offer an easy to use guidebook to constructing a rain garden on your own property. Rain Gardens treat and/or infiltrate stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces to reduce the amount of pollution entering the river.

Reduce Impervious surfaces

• Consider reducing the size of your own parking area or patio, or promote low impact development and minimizing impervious area on development projects in your community. Higher impervious cover across a watershed is directly proportional to poorer water quality.

drive less

• You probably know that walking, biking, and taking public transportation are good for the air, but it makes a big difference for water quality too. Burning all those fossil fuels and wearing down all those tires add pollution to our waterways, not to mention all those the roads and parking lots constructed to support our car culture.

sign up to get action alerts

• We’ll let you know when there is an opportunity for activism! (Hint: It’s usually as easy as sending an email or making a call at a critical time. Give us your address and we can send you local alerts too.)

give to crwa

• More than half of our funding comes from individual donors, please consider making a one time or sustaining gift to CRWA today!

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