Assabet River NWR Final CCP - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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Chapter 3: Refuge and Resource Descriptions
Center retained administrative responsibility for approximately 75.67
acres, of which 71.5+/- acres are planned to be transferred to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency and 4.15+/- acres to the U.S. Air Force.
Socio-economic Resources
The group of towns in which the refuge is located is known as the Metro
West section of greater metropolitan Boston.
Population and Demographic Conditions
Population trends vary considerably among the neighboring cities and
towns of Maynard, Sudbury, Hudson and Stow (U.S. Census Bureau 2001).
Overall population levels in the four towns increased from 47,244 to 51,289
(an 8.6% percent increase) between 1990 and 2000. The majority of this
increase occurred in Sudbury. The population of Sudbury increased from
14,358 to 16,841 (a 17.3% increase). Maynard’s population increased from
10,325 to 10,433 (1%), Stow’s increased from 5,328 to 5,902 (10.8%), and
Hudson’s increased from 17,233 to 18,113 (5.1%) (U.S. Census 2001).
The Boston-Worcester-Lawrence metropolitan area population increased
by 363,697 people or 6.7% to a total of 5,819,100 in 2000. The greater
Worcester metropolitan area grew by 33,005 people (nearly a 7% increase)
to a population of 511,389 in the year 2000 (U.S. Census 2001). A more
detailed set of the most recent available U.S. Census (1990) demographic
descriptors for Hudson, Maynard and Sudbury is provided at the U.S.
Census bureau’s web site for the Census 2000 data:
http://factfinder.census.gov (comparable data for Stow was not available).
Adjacent Communities and Land Uses
Stow, Maynard, Hudson and Sudbury have zoned the refuge what is the
equivalent of open-space/conservation. With the exception of the
Massachusetts Fire Fighter Training Academy and a nursery, land use
surrounding the refuge is nearly entirely low-density residential.
Assabet River NWR