This year, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council is celebrating 25 years of restoring, protecting, and reimagining the Woonasquatucket River. We are just getting started.
While WRWC officially incorporated in 2001, our collective story reaches back even further. The roots of this organization stretch into the early 1990s, when a group of community members, environmental leaders, and visionaries saw possibility where others saw neglect. Together, they believed the Woonasquatucket River could be more than forgotten water flowing through abandoned land. It could be a living, shared asset for Rhode Island communities.
The name Woonasquatucket comes from the Algonquin language, meaning “where the salt water ends.” Long before mills and dams reshaped the river, the Narragansett people valued and cared for this place. Over time, industrial use brought economic growth, but it also brought pollution, abandonment, and barriers between people and the river itself.
Led by local heroes like Fred Lippitt and Jane Sherman, the dream of a continuous Greenway along the Woonasquatucket took shape. The goal was to restore the river, reconnect neighborhoods, and spark revitalization throughout Providence, North Providence, Johnston and Smithfield. Through deep partnerships and relentless advocacy, millions of dollars were secured to clean up contaminated land, build bike paths, restore wetlands, and open public parks where trash and rubble once sat.
What were once brownfields are now parks, gardens, fish passages, trails, classrooms, and gathering spaces. The Woonasquatucket River remains at the heart of our work, even as WRWC has grown to serve the entire watershed through environmental education, green infrastructure, recreation, youth programs, and climate resilience efforts.
As we celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we will be honoring the people who shaped this organization, sharing stories from the past, and reflecting on how far we have come together. Most importantly, we will be looking ahead to the future of the river and the communities who call this watershed home.
Thank you for being part of the WRWC story. We cannot wait to celebrate with you all year long.
Here’s to 25 years and to everything still to come.