Wayland Town Crier 6/26/11: Volunteers needed to help clear Heard Pond in Wayland. The Wayland Surface Water Quality Committee just started the 2011 season of harvesting water chestnuts on Heard Pond in Wayland.

Water chestnuts are an invasive species that just a few years ago completely covered many parts of the pond from shoreline to shoreline. In 2003, there were 1.2 million pounds of the weed harvested, and in 2010 just 427 pounds of plants. This dramatic decrease cannot be taken for granted, since water chestnut seeds may have a seven- to 12-year dormancy in the sediment, and complete eradication for a number of harvesting seasons is required to bring the infestation under control.

Lycott Environmental employees Travis Williams and Jake Duncan were out on the pond recently, harvesting the very difficult to reach southwest shoreline.

The town of Wayland has contracted out this type of work, while a Surface Water Quality Committee volunteer effort will remove the weeds in the easier to wade portions of the pond along Pelham Island Road.

Please email Tom Largy, the project manager for Heard Pond or call him at 508-358-4646 if you would like to volunteer or just discuss invasive aquatic weeds in general, since Largy has literally seen millions of them in recent years.