Water Quality: MPF Secures Second Grant

Yesterday, we received a “green light” from MassDEP to begin the Manchaug Pond Water Quality Improvement – Phase 2 grant project.  Our paperwork is complete, we are good to go! Phase 1 project – Pervious pavers installed at the state boat ramp. Last October, we received news that of the 14 proposals submitted, Manchaug Pond Foundation’s was one of seven projects to be recommended to the US EPA for funding through the ‘FFY13 319 Nonpoint Source Competitive Grants Program. Earlier this year our final scope, budget, and timeline were accepted and this month our final paperwork was completed.  Of the total $1.4 million, Manchaug Pond will receive $119,865 with MPF responsible for matching Phase 1- Catch basin installed on lake roadside with time and services for a total project budget of $208, 525. Phase 1 project – Rain garden captures runoff preventing erosion This grant will also allow additional Nonpoint Source (NPS) improvements in the watershed to help improve the water quality of Manchaug Pond and ultimately the Mumford and Blackstone Rivers. The phase 2 project, like the phase 1, will install a number of stormwater BMP structures immediately around the pond in both towns of Sutton and Douglas: leaching …

A thought for today..

A look at Manchaug Pond through the eyes of today’s gloomy weather: A look at Manchaug Pond through the efforts of the Manchaug Pond Foundation:   Today’s post is a collaboration between our seasoned blog writer and our new intern.  A welcome to this new writer for Manchaug Pond and the Foundation – we look forward to reading future posts and seeing the results of the young involvement!

Manchaug Pond Foundation Events/Fundraising

BIG Raffle Tickets on Sale Now!

Remember our BIG BOAT Raffles? The reverse drawing with the loosing numbers drawn first – on rubber duckies in a pool?  And the winner had a choice of a brand new boat or a pocket of cash? Well our BIG RAFFLE is back!   This year the prize is not a boat but a trip to a location of your choice worth up to $5,000!  The winner can choose the travel voucher or $4,000 CA$H!  We’ve made it easier to play, with the best odds and ticket price… up to 100 tickets will be sold – no more than that!  And the price per ticket has been slashed in half at $100. So are you in?  Great odds, great price, great fun at the drawing, and a great cause! You can go in with a family or a friend!For tickets see a MPF Board member or email ManchaugPondSecretary@gmail.com and we will get a ticket delivered to your door! Thanks for your part in preserving Manchaug Pond! Send your donations to MPF, P.O. Box 154, Manchaug, MA  01526 or make our Paypal button dance! 

Now flowering in the Manchaug Pond watershed: Pink Lady’s Slipper

Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) is flowering now in the acidic forests around Manchaug Pond. This particular plant is growing on a steep slope at the base of an oak tree in the woods of Douglas.Check out this link from the US Forest Service for more info about this orchid.

Worcester Telegram Editorial on the Beaton Farm Property

The following is an editorial from the Worcester Telegram.  Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Common ground A ‘view shed’ in Sutton on the block This much is certain: The Beaton Farm property in Sutton offers a magnificent and unspoiled view of Manchaug Pond from historic Waters Farm. But when it comes to the eleventh-hour battle to “save the land from development,” it is much less clear that the property is in dire danger. On the one hand, local conservationists, spearheaded by the Manchaug Pond Foundation, are hoping to raise $1.32 million by July 16 to buy 76 acres on behalf of the town, thus preserving it in perpetuity. On the other hand, the College of the Holy Cross has offered $1.9 million to the owners to purchase the 76 acres plus acreage along the pond’s shore, for siting a retreat center. Often, tussles over New England’s vanishing landscape are stark choices between leaving the land as is, or letting it sprout single-family homes. There’s no doubt that if Holy Cross obtains the property, some development will take place, but if the college’s plans are as advertised, a 30,000-square-foot retreat center can probably coexist with the woods, wildlife and sense of place …

Herons, Manchaug Pond, and the Neighboring Rookery

A Heron on a dock on Manchaug Pond – archive photo Herons are a common sight on Manchaug Pond: fishing coves, standing on docks and shoreline boulders and flying low over the water to a quiet place.  To see where they are nesting, just take a car ride north and west of Manchaug Pond heading toward Oxford. Heron rookery located just outside Manchaug Pond watershed in Oxford, Massachusetts  As you head west on Central Turnpike you’ll enter Oxford, passing Douglas Pike and  Joe Jenny Road on the left. Keep looking to the left and you will see a large area of water and dead trees.  This wetlands was created by a number of years ago by beavers flooding the forest.  Those dead trees now bear the large stick nests of herons! A driveby reveals the adults standing tall in the nest with other adults flying east to and from area ponds and wetlands. Closeup of females in the nests. In addition to Manchaug Pond, herons are frequent visitors to Aldrich Mill Pond at the inlet of Manchaug, the bordering trout ponds on the Beaton Farm Property in Sutton as well as neighboring Stevens Pond downstream and Oxford’s Robinson Pond west …

TO DO LIST for Lovers of Manchaug Pond!

My Action Items – Today the lake is my priority! Preserve Beaton Farm – all 100+ acres of fields, forests, and shoreline! 1. TAKE A STAND!  Yes, I support MPF’s effort to preserve the shoreline, water, and watershed! VOTE in the poll on the sidebar at the right!  Comment here, and on Facebook as to what Manchaug Pond means to you! 2. MAKE A DONATION – Dig deep!  I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Manchaug Pond NEEDS ME and MPF needs me with them and behind them! Love Manchaug Pond?  Be a part of the rescue!  Join the MPF to preserve the entire parcel, farmlands, forest, and the 875 ft of waterfront.   No donation is too small or too big.  Today send your check to MPF, P. O. Box 154, Manchaug, MA, USA  01526-0154 or use the Paypal button on the sidebar.   MPF needs to cover required closing costs: title, surveying and marking, wetlands delineation and flagging, legal fees, etc. 3. SPREAD THE WORD!  I’m going to tell everyone I know what is going on and ask them to help me save our lake! We can do this!

Sunday Telegram Tells Beaton Farm Story

Sunday, May 19, 2013 Group races to save Sutton landscape A robin takes flight from a fence post on land the Manchaug Pond Association wants to save from development. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)The Manchaug Pond Foundation is racing to raise $1.32 million by July 16 to buy the Beaton Farm Property overlooking Manchaug Pond. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR) By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF susan.spencer@telegram.com Add a comment   Enlarge photo Enlarge photo SUTTON —  There is hardly a more classic rural New England landscape than in Sutton. Rolling hills unfold in a patchwork of fields and stone walls. Weathered barns stand against the wind. Orchards, dairy and horse farms dot knolls sloping to sparkling ponds. That view — and the town’s cultural heritage — is changing, as open space succumbs to development. Selectman Michael A. Chizy, who serves as board chairman, has lived in town almost 60 years. “Where cornfields used to be, now there’s houses,” he said. Another quintessential parcel, the 100-acre Beaton Farm Property that was once part of historic Waters Farm, overlooking Manchaug Pond, may be the next to be developed. The current owner, who has received property tax benefits for 73 acres on the site under the …

Today’s Cleanup Draws 21 Volunteers!

On this beautiful spring day, beginning with coffee, donuts and a bowl of fresh fruit, 21 volunteers joined forces at the state boat ramp on Torrey Road, Sutton today from 9:00AM to 2:00PM to fan out cleanning the roadsides, ramp and shoreline of Manchaug Pond. Coordinated by the Manchaug Pond Foundation, the cleanup included trash pick up on roadsides including Lackey Road, Manchaug Road from Central Turnpike to Torrey Road, Torrey Road to Holt Road in Sutton and then on to Oak Street in Douglas. A team with “heavy equipment” focused on the public boat ramp clearing branches from lawn areas, leaves and other debris from gutters, and trash from the property. Cooperating in the effort was the town of Sutton Highway Dept. who supplied a town truck for disposal of the trash. Volunteer hours will count toward our upcoming s. 319 Nonpoint Pollution Grant. A couple cars also pulled up asking for information on the MPF and how they could join our efforts!  As Sutton residents they loved the lake and enjoyed boating and one local family camps at a Manchaug Pond campground! If you would like to be on the mailing list – email ManchaugPondSecretary@gmail.com with your name, …

IN THE NEWS: Beaton Farm Property

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Outdoors: Hoping someone can save this land from development by July Mark Blazis Outdoors Add a comment   Today’s column was supposed to be about great fishing — the first big surge of stripers, mackerel, squid, the Canal, Barnstable Harbor, huge flocks of terns feeding over bait, tired casting arms, local mayfly hatches, and shad runs. That news is temporarily on hold for a much more urgent matter. A Sutton wildlife treasure is on the precipice of development. It’s the bottom of the ninth for Beaton Farm. Without immediate intervention — i.e., $1.325 million — we’re going to lose it forever. July 16 is D-Day. Without someone coming to the rescue and having all formalities completed by that date, Holy Cross stands ready to take over the land — and build on it. In lieu of what could or should have been done long before now, we need a deus ex machina — a wealthy benefactor or a conservation rescue team from the DCR, MassWildlife, MassAudubon, the Nature Conservancy, a land trust or Trustees of Reservations — to again step in at the proverbial last minute, as some have done so many times in the past. …