On a cool Saturday morning, 45 volunteers came together with the Acton Conservation Division and OARS to complete 1 objective: remove as many invasive Water Chestnuts (Trapa natans) as possible from Ice House Pond. By noon, volunteers had managed to remove an estimated 17,040 Water Chestnuts! This is nearly 600 more Water Chestnuts removed from last year!
 
The objective was accomplished with about 20 different canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards each loaded with laundry baskets overflowing with Water Chestnuts. A special thanks to Paddle Boston for delivering 12 canoes. Land-based volunteers waited patiently on shore for boats to return carrying sometimes up to 8 laundry baskets full of plant mass. Stacking baskets or carrying them together, volunteers emptied 355 baskets into a huge pile of wet, muddy, green plant matter.
 
The pile of Water Chestnuts at Ice House Pond will now sit and slowly shrink as the sun evaporates most of their water content. If you drive by Ice House Pond, watch each week as the pile gets smaller and smaller. When it has dried out enough, the Town’s Department of Public Works/ Highway will remove and bury the plants. This is an important step, as Water Chestnuts seeds can grow even after being buried for 10 years!
 
We are grateful for the volunteers who helped out and made a huge positive impact on the Ice House Pond ecosystem. We have prevented the spread of invasive species, encouraged biodiversity, mitigated hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the water), stalled sedimentation, and gave native species a fighting chance!
 
We will be having another Water Chestnut pull this Fall. Details yet to be released.
 
Please email ibergemann@actonma.gov or call Acton Conservation: (978) 929-6634 for any questions, comments, or if you’d liked to get an email for the next Water Chestnut pull.
 
Thank you to OARS and Paddle Boston for supporting Acton’s effort to restore Ice House Pond.
 
For more information on OARS and their mission please visit: https://www.oars3rivers.org/