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What have we
done
about weeds in the past?
Some of the Pond’s oldest
residents describe the gin-clear waters in which they swam as
kids. But at least as early as the 1940s, attempts were made to
clear weeds choking some of the shorelines. The chief method was
to draw down the water during the winter through an eight-inch
cast-iron pipe installed in the late 1930s. The pipe ran under the dam;
a large wheel controlled a gate valve that, when open, allowed the Pond
to be lowered by as much as six feet. The drawdowns allowed
residents
to rake weeds from the shallow water - and let Mother Nature kill
weeds with a winter frost. One resident used a truck to pull out
large stumps left over from the enlargement of the Pond when the dam
was constructed in the mid-1800s.
As more and more year-round residents moved in, the
winter draw-downs became more controversial. An October, 1959,
article in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune
reported that residents had voted
24-22 to continue the draw-downs, with the out-voted minority
complaining that they feared loss water from the shallow wells on which
most residents depended. Despite the complaints, draw-downs are
said to have continued off and on into the 1960s. The last
draw-down apparently was conducted in 1973.
That one was for the
purpose of repairing the dam, and took the water level down only 10 or
12 inches. Since then, the valve in the draw-down pipe rusted
shut, and the pipe itself eventually collapsed and filled in.
(Drawdowns were resumed in the winter of 2005-6; for more information,
click here.)
The next concerted effort to deal
with the weed problem – which was increasing exponentially – came in
the 1980s, when the
long-dormant Foster’s Pond Corporation was
resuscitated and became the vehicle for a number of studies and an
action plan. The studies from that period are available
here. The action plan was developed by residents volunteering to
be on an FPC “Condition of the Pond Committee”. The plan was
adopted by a newly-energized FPC, which bought and operated a used weed
harvester. The purchase price (in 1982) was $10,500; the annual
operating cost was $5,000 to $6,000. Pond residents were asked to
contribute $320 for the initial year, and $100 per year thereafter.
The harvester, a platform mounted
on pontoons and propelled by paddle wheels, featured a long, flat
“snout” projecting down into the water, with teeth to cut weeds at
their roots and a conveyor belt which brought the mown weeds to the
surface and dumped them on the deck. Operators (all residents of
the Pond) off-loaded the waterlogged weeds by hand into an aging dump
truck, and deposited them at a community garden owned by the Foster’s
Pond Improvement Association just off Willard Circle. The weed
harvester operated for several years. While some residents
complained that it did no good or even made conditions worse, most were
satisfied that it kept large areas of the Pond open and removed tons of
nutrient-laden material. But the operation was time-consuming and
back-breaking, and could not be sustained.
In 1992, residents organized
another approach to weed control, hydro-raking. A hydro-rake is
essentially a backhoe (with an eight-foot wide rake, instead of a
bucket) mounted on pontoons, with paddle wheels for propulsion.
Any resident who wants his or her shoreline raked pays by the hour for
the hydro-rake to claw weeds and muck from the bottom and deposited at
a designated spot on the property. The property-owner is
responsible for removing the deposit to an upland location (often their
garden). Hydro-raking has been conducted every couple of years,
usually with about 20 property owners participating and each requesting
anywhere from one to eight hours of raking. A private contractor,
Aquatic
Control Technology, Inc., has supplied the machine and its
operator. For more recent information on hydro-raking, click here.
In 2004, a
re-invigorated Foster's Pond Corporation began laying the groundwork
for an integrated weed management program.
For a detailed account of the implementation of the program - and
up-to-date information on current weed-control efforts, click here.
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