Golden Hills project a success

SAUGUS-A project launched last spring to attack an invasive weed problem in Griswold Pond has proven so successful there is hope the same procedure can be used on Spring and First ponds as well.Aquatic Control Technology Inc.’s report clearly awed Conservation Commission Chairman Al Trafone.”Though biologists took a look at the ponds and made a recommendation and it worked,” Trafone said. “Sometimes they make the recommendation but there are outside issues and it doesn’t always work. This did.”The problem was invasive vegetation that is slowly taking over the ponds. Left unchecked, the weeds would slowly fill the ponds turning them all into bogs. Of the three interconnected Golden Hills ponds, Griswold was the worst. Griswold is also located above the other, so Trafone said he felt it was imperative to start with that one.In June, Aquatic began applying a Sonar herbicide treatment to control watermilfoil, fanwort and swollen bladderwort, which had already begun to spread across the pond.According to the report, the pond received a booster shot on July 16, but the affects of the Sonar were already clearly working. By Aug. 8 the vegetation was virtually gone.According to the report, “No evidence of either milifoil or fanwort was observed; growth of watershield and waterlilies had been reduced by approximately 90 percent.”Growth of swollen bladderwort was also being hampered. By late September nearly all the vegetation was gone.”It’s like night and day, which is amazing,” said Health Agent Sharon McCabe.McCabe said the Sonar was so effective they want to treat the other two ponds so they don’t lose ground with Griswold, but that will depend largely on the budget.”We need to get the other two (ponds) treated,” she said. “We will need Town Meeting to keep that funding in mind.”McCabe, however, said she was heartened at how a number of town departments worked together to get this project off the ground.Trafone said he plans to meet with the Town Manager to discuss funding avenues and hopes the town can come up with the $9,700 needed to fund the clean up of First and Spring ponds.”The other two ponds are on their way to being close to what Griswold looked like,” he said. “This turned out very effective and the treatment would bring all of the ponds well under control.”Trafone said Aquatic will also monitor the ponds to see if the weeds begin to take hold again. He said if the commission can keep the water level in the ponds up and the vegetation down, which would keep the sediment minimal they should be able to control the weed problem.”It could go three years and be OK,” he said. “It all depends on, from what I’ve learned, how deep the seeds are.”Without the sediment, Trafone said the seeds of the invasive plants won’t have anything to take hold of.He is also hoping further investigation will lead to what exactly is feeding the invasive plants.”We are treating a symptom,” he said. “There are causes for the plumes . . . we need to watch the type of run off or maybe there’s a septic system feeding it. We have to figure out what’s feeding it.”