Woods Pond residents urge town help to control invasive plants; treatment faces permitting and funding hurdles

Woods Pond residents told the Middleborough Conservation Commission on Tuesday that invasive aquatic plants returned this summer after mechanical clearing and that further work will require permits and more funding.

Mary Capistano, vice president of the Woods Pond Association, said weekly water tests showed acceptable bacterial results but that dense weeds made swimming and recreation difficult. “We had mechanical hydro-raking in 2022 but it only lasted about a year,” Capistano said. She told the commission a private quote for a chemical treatment was about $85,000 and that the association is a small group of roughly 25 members.

The association has secured $25,000 from the Taunton River Stewardship Council and has received a step-1 approval from the town’s Community Preservation Committee; Capistano said a step-2 application due in December would seek the additional funding needed to reach town meeting in April. Conservation Agent Trish (last name not specified in the record) and staff cautioned that chemical treatment will require state permitting because the pond is mapped under the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife due to a rare mussel and a native milfoil species present in the pond. “You have to get permits to do some of this work,” Trish said, describing endangered-species and permitting constraints.

Capistano said a vegetation survey last fall identified the invasive plant as fanwort, not Eurasian milfoil, which affects cost and method choices; mechanical removal can fragment fanwort and encourage spread, whereas targeted chemical treatment can be effective but requires careful permitting when rare species are present. The association’s consultant quoted two possible herbicides that have been used on state-managed lakes, Capistano said.

Commission staff and members discussed coordinating with neighboring pond groups and state or regional funders. Trish suggested the Woods Pond Association consider forming a lake/pond association that could pursue state grants and other funding sources; residents and staff also discussed pooling resources with nearby Tisquiquan (Tisquaquin) Pond stakeholders because the lakes are hydrologically connected.

The commission did not take formal action but advised the association to continue permitting conversations, coordinate with the town’s conservation staff on required filings and provide additional documentation to the Community Preservation Committee for the step-2 application.

The association and commission members discussed next steps and communications: compiling the vegetation survey report, confirming the presence and status of the rare mussel with MassWildlife, and preparing the step-2 CPC application due in December. Capistano said she would share contact information for area organizers working across connected watersheds.

The commission also noted that Community Preservation funds typically cover capital treatments and not ongoing annual maintenance, so pairing initial treatment grant dollars with a sustainable funding or association model will be important if long-term control is the goal.