NASHUA, NH – The 350NH climate justice organization celebrated the relaunching of the Nashua Chapter on Saturday by holding a neighborhood clean-up and information event. Beginning at the Arlington Street Community Center (ASCC) volunteers fanned out through the Crown Hill neighborhood cleaning up debris and litter.
350 New Hampshire is a nonprofit group working for a transition toward a renewable energy and fossil fuel-free future. The climate activists work for a local and national climate justice agenda.
The group was active in blocking the proposed asphalt plant project in Nashua. Activity for the Nashua chapter has fallen off since that victory and this event was designed to reactivate city residents to become involved. 350NH has five local chapters and has nearly 100,000 members in the state.
Jennifer Dube, a climate justice Organizer for 350NH, described the group this way: “We work as community organizers looking to pull people together people with a common interest in renewable energy and anything climate-related.”
Added Dube, “From today’s event we wanted folks in the community, who are interested in a healthy climate and clean environment to come out and meet some of the local organizations that are doing some really good work in the Nashua area.”
The group is currently active in supporting candidates for office that support their agenda. They are also actively promoting The Community Power Coalition in the state, which aggregates energy purchases and provides cost savings to individuals.
“Our goal is to make sure every town in NH adopts Community Power. We would love to have all the towns that don’t have community power introduce warrant articles at town meetings which are coming up in March,” said Dube.
Sara Olsen organized the event and is working to relaunch the group in Nashua. She organized actions for the Keene chapter and now wants to replicate that here. “The goal is to get people involved and to grow our membership in Nashua.”
Revision Energy, Grow Nashua, and the Nashua River Watershed Association (NWRA) had information tables at the event connecting with the dozens of volunteers who pitched in to clean the neighborhood.
Susan Slane represented the NWRA. She is a volunteer who has monitored the water quality in the Mine Falls stretch of the river for the last nine years. The NWRA recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
“Where we live in Nashua, the river is cleaner than you think! You can look at the NWRA website to see all of the data we report and find all of the river-related activities for Nashua and the 32 communities that make up the watershed,” said Slane.
The change in the health of the river, and the historic investment by the city to make it a centerpiece of downtown, serve as a testament to the power of local climate advocacy and action.