Wayland Town Crier 7/25/11: Volunteers help clear water chestnut plants from Heard Pond. Wayland High School Community Service volunteers Kate Fiske and Jesse Vogel were out on Heard Pond in Wayland, hand-pulling the water chestnut plants that have infested the pond for a number of years. In 2003, there were 1.2 million pounds of the weed harvested from the pond, and in 2010 just 427 pounds. Success depends on just about 100 percent removal of the plant for each growing season for a number of years, since the seeds lie in dormancy in the pond sediments for up to 12 years. Because the plants are much fewer than just a few years ago, this type of hand-pulling effort requires a trudge through quite an area of mucky bottom and lily pads to find the occasional water chestnut plant.