[4] The Friends of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge (FARNWR) is a non-profit organization formed in 2000, nearly a full year prior to the transfer of the annex to the U.S.

Since that time, the Friends Group has provided the refuge invaluable assistance in preparing to open the refuge for wildlife-dependent recreational activities by removing physical safety hazards; conducting biological surveys of vernal pools, raptors, bats, invasive plant species; and conducting numerous public outreach and education programs.

[5] The land on which the wildlife refuge sits was originally occupied by Native Americans and then became farmland for early colonists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

[7] Origins of the refuge date back to the 1942 World War II-era seizure of land spanning Maynard, Sudbury, Hudson, and Stow by federal eminent domain as the Fort Devens-Sudbury Training Annex.

The site was chosen as it had convenient railroad shipping to the Boston Navy Yard, yet was far enough inland that a German battleship could not shell the area.

[9] After World War II the site served as a troop training ground, ordnance testing, and laboratory disposal area for Natick Labs, otherwise known as the United States Army Soldier Systems Center.