In case you have not heard about the “Hudson Boulevard,” it is a four-lane highway proposed by the Hudson Planning Board and the Nashua Regional Planning Commission that would wind from Wason Road up through the Musquash Conservation land and connect to Route 111. This proposed project is nothing more than a resurrection of the old proposal for a “Nashua-Hudson Circumferential Highway”-yes, the very the same project that was shot down by the EPA in the 1990s. This project would cause considerable harm to wetlands and wildlife in our town. That is why the EPA put a stop to it and why it should remain dead.

Below is a list of some of the negative environmental effects of constructing the highway as outlined in an abstract of a 1993 EPA document on the Nashua-Hudson Circumferential Highway (EPA number: 930359F, Volume I–344 pages and maps; Volume II–265 pages, October 8, 1993):

• Rights-of-way acquisition would displace 11 to 53 residences and 2 to 3 businesses; 15 to 45 acres of active farmland; and 54 to 94 acres of wetlands.

• Up to 51 acres in the National Wetlands Inventory would be filled.

• Some 511 to 641 acres of undeveloped wildlife habitat would be adversely affected.

• Continued fragmentation/urbanizing of the environment of southern New Hampshire would occur.

• Encroach[ment] on bald eagle roost and feeding habitat, and on aquifer and well areas.

• [Adverse effects on] Historic sites… already in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

• Portions of some archaeologically sensitive areas would be cross-cut.

Contrary to what the Hudson Planning Board and the Nashua Regional Planning Board are trying to sell us, the “Hudson Boulevard” would not reduce traffic in Hudson, but increase the influx of outside traffic, routing cars and trucks from both the Everett Turnpike and Rte 93 through the delicate ecosystem areas of our town, bringing with it increases in air pollution and noise. This “Boulevard,” is really a highway that would not serve the residents of Hudson-but instead would benefit only businesses hijacking Hudson as a byway to travel between the Everett Turnpike and 93.

With climate change also looming over us, Hudson residents – now more than ever – need to stop the forces that would destroy Hudson’s wildlife and its natural ecosystems. Hudson is a small rural town with farms and open land it needs to retain, not a city that the Department of Transportation should be allowed to just plow a four-lane highway through without regard for the town’s character or its native wildlife. Hudson citizens need to unite and fight this proposal, to demand environmental justice, and to save our quality of life.

Newsletter