Building Green Infrastructure Awareness in Milford
On June 13, CRWA’s Stormwater Team hosted a green infrastructure tour at Milford Town Park, giving residents an opportunity to learn about local stormwater solutions and share their perspectives on future projects in the community. Designed as an informal “office-hours-style” event, the tour allowed busy residents to stop by, ask questions, and engage with project staff at their own pace. Attendees explored the park’s existing rain gardens and subsurface infiltration systems, learning about how these projects were designed, how they are maintained, and the role they play in reducing flooding and stormwater pollution. Staff also shared conceptual designs for several priority project sites, creating opportunities for residents to provide feedback, voice concerns, and discuss their priorities for future green infrastructure investments in Milford.
To help visualize how water moves through the landscape, CRWA staff kicked off conversations with a “Watershed in a Box” demonstration. This interactive model helped illustrate the water cycle and showed how development can contribute to watershed-scale challenges such as flooding, stormwater runoff, and habitat loss–issues that are only being intensified by climate change. Building on these discussions, staff shared preliminary findings from the ongoing Community Flooding Survey, which helps guide planning while giving residents a clearer picture of flooding concerns throughout the town. The activity also encouraged participants to share their own experiences with flooding and add locations of concern directly to an interactive map.
Throughout the afternoon, Milford Town Park served as both an outdoor classroom and a living laboratory, helping residents connect local stormwater challenges with practical, nature-based solutions that benefit both the Town of Milford and the Charles River watershed. CRWA staff would like to extend a special thank you to Fabiola from Rosetta Languages for providing Portuguese interpretation services and helping make the event more accessible to Milford residents.
