Taunton River flows 44 miles from the confluence of the Town and Matfield Rivers into Rhode Island's Mount Hope Bay. The 562 square mile Taunton River Watershed, the second largest in Massachusetts and home to 38 cities and towns, is perhaps the most diverse and intact coastal rivernet ecosystem in southern New England.
The watershed includes 221 lakes and ponds and 27 different habitat types ranging from peat bogs, red maple swamps, and floodplain meadows to seepage swamps and fens, to freshwater and brackish marshes. Hockomock Swamp, at 16,800 acres, is the largest remaining wetland in the state, and is important as a home for wildlife, as well as a groundwater recharge area and natural water filter.
The health of this natural resource is threatened by increased development.