Communities

Communities along the Wild & Scenic Nissitissit River include (from headwaters to Nashua confluence): Brookline and Hollis, NH, and Pepperell, MA.

History

The Nissitissit, a name meaning “two brooks” or “between two brooks” in the Nipmuc language, would have been the center of an abundant landscape for the indigenous people pre-contact, with clean waters and both marshy and forested areas with a diversity of aquatic and terrestrial prey.

As settlers moved into the area, the Nissitissit became a resource for industry in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Fresh Pond Ice Company operated a major ice harvesting operation on the Potanipo Pond in the 1890s and early 1900s, sending blocks of ice to Boston by railroad, taking 150,000 to 180,000 tons of ice from the pond per year. The company had one of the largest ice houses under one roof in the world. 

The river became a source of power for numerous mills, including grist mills, saw mills, a wheel wright shop, and a tannery. Numerous dams were built to support these businesses, breaking the free-flow of the river. One dam in Pepperell that was initially built to support a saw and grist mill, subsequently powered a shoe cutting shop, a casket mill, a clothier’s mill, and a wool washing/carding business with a cotton batting mill. Further downstream, water powered a machine shop, as well as Pepperell’s first paper mill.  Over time, as regional and national industry changed, these mills were closed and the small dams fell into disuse and many were breached in one way or another.

In 2015, the final remaining dam on the Nissitissit River, the Millie Turner Dam in Pepperell, MA was removed through a partnership effort of the MA Division of Ecological Restoration and MassWildlife, supported by the Squan-a-tissit Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Nashua River Watershed Association, and Nashoba Conservation Trust. Today, the Nissitissit River is again free-flowing, allowing for the movement of aquatic life up and downstream for the full length of the river.

Outstandingly Remarkable Resource Values

Author John Kauffmann wrote, “Canoeing down the Nissitissit on an autumn afternoon…I realized as never before what a little river can mean to the human enjoyment of the earth.” (Flow East: A Look at Our North Atlantic Rivers, McGraw-Hill, 1973)  This crystal clear waterway with its wetland areas and forested banks is much loved by the local communities, which has led to extensive preservation efforts and miles of protected greenway. Nearly 50% of the entire length of the Nissitissit River has a 300-foot vegetated buffer strip. Conserved lands are held by a mix of conservation commissions, local land trusts, and the Beaver Brook Association, with much of the river in Massachusetts flowing through Mass Wildlife’s Nissitissit Wildlife Management Area. Paddlers in the spring, the season when there is sufficient flow in the river, will enjoy a wilderness experience with very little development within view.

The Nissitissit River and its tributaries—particularly, Gulf, Mine, and Sucker Brooks—are coldwater fisheries resources containing native brook trout. The river is unique in eastern Massachusetts for having both a “Fly Fishing Only” and “Catch and Release” section. The removal of the last dam on the river is expected to improve flows and benefit the river’s wild brook trout population. There is even hope of restoring river herring populations- alewife and shad– with the US Fish & Wildlife Service working with NH Fish & Game to stock Lake Potanipo to re-establish a native population. Adult fish return upstream to spawn where their young will spend the summer before leaving for the ocean where they will mature after 3 to 5 years. Downstream dam removal, and improved fishways at existing dams, will make it possible for the offspring of these stocked fish to return in future years to Lake Potanipo.

The Nissitissit River is also home to five species of freshwater mussel—one of the most highly endangered animal groups in North America—which require clean water. In Massachusetts, freshwater mussels are a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN)  and good habitat sites need to be protected. Two listed under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA) are: the creeper (Special Concern) and the brook floater (endangered and also listed as endangered under New Hampshire’s Endangered Species Conservation Act), notable as one of just four populations in the Commonwealth. In fact, the Nissitissit River was ranked as a conservation priority stream based on its relatively healthy A. varicosa population of brook floaters.

The high quality waters of the Nissitissit also make it prime habitat for Odonates (dragonflies and damselflies). Fifty-seven species were collected on the Nissitissit River in a single day, including state-listed species like the brook snaketail (dragonfly, MA state-listed Special Concern). The spine-crowned clubtail is also found in the Nissitissit River corridor as well as Ophiuchus aspersus, the Brook Snaketail, which is an indicator of high quality of small/medium sized rivers/streams.

Sightings in the Nissitissit River sub-watershed include the American bittern (bird, MA state–listed endangered), spotted turtle (formerly of MA tate–listed Special Concern and NH state-listed threatened), Blanding’s turtle (threatened in Massachusetts and petitioned for federal listing), and wood turtle (MA and NH state– listed Special Concern).