Excerpts from the report: The Central Region covers approximately 1,700 square miles and includes parts of three major watersheds: the Merrimack, the Blackstone, and the Thames. The major streams are the: Merrimack, Shawsheen, Assabet, Concord, Sudbury, Squanacook, Nashua, Stillwater, Quinapoxet, Blackstone, Mill, Quinsigamond, Mumford, Kettle Brook, Quinebaug, and French. There are 79 cities and towns in the region. Forest is the dominant land use in the Central Region covering approximately 61 percent of the land area or 664,505 acres. Over 17 percent of the land is in urban uses with only 9.4 percent in agricultural use. Wetlands, water, and "other" land uses make up the balance. The objectives of this report are to identify problems, needs, and alternative solutions in the following major resource areas: land use, flooding, erosion, sediment, and wetlands.