Water chestnut plant. Credit: ShaSha Kingston

Help remove an invasive plant from Ell Pond in melrose!

From the Melrose Conservation Commission: The Melrose Conservation Commission is hosting a volunteer day at Ell Pond on Sunday, August 11 from 9 am to noon. We’ll be gathering and disposing of the remaining water chestnut plants on the lake.  

For the past three years, the Conservation Commission has hired a contractor to harvest large amounts of water chestnuts, an invasive aquatic plant that a few years ago had covered over half of Ell Pond. Last summer, we supplemented that work with three volunteer workdays in which volunteers used kayaks and paddle boards to remove more water chestnuts from along the edges of the lake where the water is too shallow for the mechanical harvester.  We hope to scoop up the remaining plants during this workday, using small boats or in some cases, reaching them from the shoreline.

What to bring: your kayaks, standup paddle boards, or canoes, work gloves, a laundry basket (or two) and a refillable water bottle. Wakefield Community Boating runs a kayak rental on weekends at Ell Pond and you may be able to rent a kayak from 10:30 am on. See: https://www.wakefieldboating.com/hours-pricing

If you don’t have a boat, you can help by bringing a wheelbarrow or buckets to help offload the water chestnuts from the volunteers in boats and dump them into large pile for removal by Melrose DPW. We can also always use help in picking up trash and recycling along the shoreline and in Ell Pond park.

Where to meet: We’ll meet at the Ell Pond Parking Lot launch area, next to the Ell Pond Dog Park, on Lynn Fells Parkway, across from Melrose High School.

And if you cannot make it, we’ll be hosting more volunteer workdays next summer!

Questions: contact Charlie McCabe - chasmccabe@gmail.com