Welcome to WAA, Herring Ponds Watershed Association!

Today’s blogger is Shalen!

Little Herring Pond public access point

Lee Pulis, of the Herring Ponds Watershed Association which was founded in 2007 as a volunteer neighborhood organization, was kind enough to take us on a tour of the Herring Ponds watershed last Thursday! The HPWA is WAA's newest member! This watershed is not a hydrologic watershed but a state-d
esignated area of critical environmental concern (ACEC), with politically designated boundaries (one of which is Rt. 3). The ACEC is an important area for recreation as well as for water supply, as most of its residents draw from the Plymouth-Carver Aquifer. In addition to sampling pond water and storm water runoff, the HPWA commits to educating residents about their watershed and promoting boating and recreational safety.

The highlights of this watershed are the Little and Great Herring Ponds. Little Herring Pond (I will use the abbreviation LHP for brevity) is at maximum 5 feet deep. Its northern waters never freeze, so aquatic plants abound and it is a great fish pond. Motor boats are not allowed on LHP, and because of this there are no invasive species which often spread by boats and their trailers.

Great Herring Pond (GHP), however is much larger: its waters span 376 acres and are at least 20 feet deep. It receives 80% of its water from the LHP. The state requires a 100-foot buffer zone for any construction around its shores, because of its designation as one of the great Massachusetts ponds. Of course there are many grandfathered homes all around the shoreline, so buffer zone stewardship education is a prime mission of HPWA. Carter’s River flows downstream from LHP to GHP.

At the Carter Beal Conservation Area

Our first stop in this watershed was the Ponds of Plymouth housing development on the western edge of LHP. We saw lots of large expanses of irrigated lawn with non-native decorative plants. Just off one of the development’s roads is Pickerel Pond, part of The Wildlands Trust.

Water recreation is an important attraction in the Herring Ponds watershed. This watershed not only boasts residential properties along the shores of both ponds, but also many parks and day camp areas for adults and kids alike. Two such properties are Camp Clark and Hedges Pond Recreational Area. The former is a YMCA day camp for kids, has horses, nature trails, and offers swimming in Hyles Pond. The latter is a recreation area open to the public on afternoons and weekends, and which used to be an church nature camp.

After a quick interlude, in which we allowed a portion of the pouring rain to pass, we headed south along LHP’s western shores and encountered considerable runoff from the rain heading into Carter’s River, the water body connecting the two main ponds.

We drove past Parcel 15, an area of inactive cranberry bogs, between LHP and GHP. The town missed the deadline of exercising first right of refusal to buy it, and there’s a battle as to whether this land will be reactivated and two more houses with septic systems will be built on the land nearby.The Plymouth Community Preservation Community has since met and indicated it has the funds and will encourage Selectmen to correct the mistake and preserve this area to protect area water quality and recreation. Keep an eye out for further updates.

From thereon we ventured to the LHP public access point, which leads to the northeast part of GHP, and at which was a flow gauge. The wooded path leading to this outlet was rife with horrid construction materials and used electronics dumping. A short distance away, I saw a rain garden for the first time (see right), near the shores of GHP, constructed as the surface part of an underground stormwater filtration system.

Further down GHP’s southwestern shores sits a Massachusetts Maritime Academy sailing facility, offering rowing and sailing lessons, among other recreational activities. This facility is also one of the few places in the world you can learn to drive an oil tanker by training on a 1/12^th working scale model. Pretty cool!

We next observed a few passing locations including a Native American burial ground, another flow gauge towards the end of the Herring River, a boat launch in Bourne, and the Carter Beal Conservation Area, which included a fish ladder.

We reached the Herring River’s outlet by late afternoon: it flows into Cape Cod Canal, and it is at this location that herring swim up the river near the Herring Run Recreation Center. This center provides people with a view of the river (and sometimes herring!), information regarding the contribution of herring to the watershed, the Sagamore Bridge, and a recreation road dedicated purely to biking and pedestrian activities, much like the Neponset River Trail that I visited several weeks ago. This trip was a refreshing and amazing one, one during which I learned how watershed recreation creates an active community among an area’s residents!

Want to learn more about the Herring Ponds Watershed Association or volunteer in any of their activities? Visit their website http://www.theherringpondswatershed.org/Home_Page.php and check out their landmark stewardship guide at http://www.theherringpondswatershed.org/uploads/HPWA_Stewardship_Guide.pdf.

See the following link to learn more about the Lower Neponset River Trail: http://bostonharborwalk.com/placestogo/location.php?nid=2&sid=63