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.

Wayland Town Crier 7/13/11: E.coli counts continue to go down at Mansion Beach in Wayland . Surface Water Quality Committee member Mike Lowery is happy to report that E.coli counts have continued to drop at Mansion Beach in Wayland. "Keeping the beach clean and discouraging water fowl — and perhaps a little rain — may be helping," he said, adding that the plastic "Wile E. Coyote III has been on water fowl discouragement duty for three days now to good effect. "We will continue to test weekly. Thanks to Molly Upton for doing the sampling and to the Health Department for arranging the pickup and analyses."

Wayland Patch 7/9/11: Mansion Beach E. Coli Levels Now Below State Maximums. Last week the water at Mansion Beach on Wayland's Dudley Pond showed E. coli levels of 240 colony forming units (CFUs), slightly above the state’s maximum contaminant level of 235. This week, at 68 (CFUs), those levels are well below the state’s threshold for closing public beaches. Surface Water Quality Committee (SWQC) member Mike Lowery said in an email report to town officials and media that the reasons for the sharp decline are unknown, but could be due to good weather, tactics used to deter geese from the area, pet owners cleaning up after their pets or a combination of factors. Whatever the reason, "We're happy to see the situation improved," Lowery wrote.

Metrowest Daily News 7/7/11: E.coli bacteria counts down at Mansion Beach in Wayland. The Wayland Surface Water Quality Committee received good news on Thursday morning from the Health Department regarding test results from a water sampling at Mansion Beach on July 5. Test results show E.coli counts at 68 — down from last week's 240, and well below the state's threshold of 235 for closing bathing beaches. "Whether attributable to good weather, the plastic coyotes, other goose counter-measures, or the dog and goose poop patrols, we're happy to see the situation improved," said Surface Water Quality Committee member Mike Lowery. The committee voted on Wednesday night to continue its E.coli sampling at various points in Dudley Pond during the 2011 season.

Wayland Patch 6/29/11: Elevated E. Coli Levels Found at Mansion Beach. The Wayland Health Department is working on signs warning visitors of the Mansion Beach area of Dudley Pond that slightly elevated E. coli levels have been detected in the water there. Steve Calichman, director of Wayland’s Health Department, explained that Mansion Beach is not a public swimming beach, but is still used by residents from time to time.

Wayland Patch 6/28/11: Charrette Reveals Preference for Passive Recreation on Dudley Site. "Passive recreation" emerged as the phrase of the night as about 60 people, many of them neighbors to the land in question, turned out for Monday evening’s charrette hosted the Dudley Area Advisory Committee. Representatives from environmental engineering firm Tighe and Bond as well as landscape design firm Gates, Leighton and Associates were on hand to guide the process as residents talked through their hopes and wants for the swatch of land bordering Dudley Pond and accessed primarily by Doran Road and Pond Drive.

Wayland Town Crier 5/15/11: Wayland High School students become ‘weed warriors’. Students in Ms. Riseman’s Wayland High School honors biology class were tasked with “a…