The Sluice Pond Association organizes events and activities for members of the 165 households that meander along the shoreline of this 50+ acre urban pond located in Lynn, Massachusetts. Along with neighbors and the general public who use the pond for boating, fishing and swimming, members of the Sluice Pond Association are volunteers in the preservation of this natural resource.

NEW PROJECT

To preserve Sluice Pond for recreational use by the general public and its members, Sluice Pond Association launched the SLUICE POND RESTORATION PROJECT in 2006. Currently the Sluice Pond Association is working with the City of Lynn through state funding in the maintenance of the pond as a prime recreational site in Lynn. Other partners include the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and local Merchants who are members and Friends of Sluice Pond Association. We received assistance of the Commonwealth through the City of Lynn Department of Community Development to eradicate the native and invasive weeds during 2007 and 2008.

The first weed treatment for 2007 took place on June 20. The schedule for both native and invasive weed treatment is currently being negotiated by the City of Lynn for 2008. Just as in 2007, the native weed treatment will be scheduled for mid Spring and a 2nd treatment for Fanwort or other invasive weeds will follow, particularly in the northeast and northwest coves. Watch for posted notices.

HISTORY OF SLUICE POND ASSOCIATION

The Sluice Pond Association began in the 1950s as a social group of pond abutters and has remained active through several iterations of organizational growth and state/federal recognition of the organization.  In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Association mounted it’s first effort to eradicate the weeds from Eels Cove  where a primary source of water for Sluice Pond feeds in from the Cedar Brook.  There has been a great deal of concern over the years that there may be inappropriate discharge to the pond from  housing developments further upstream. This has not been substantiated by water quality measurements and consultants with Aquatic Control Technology have described a natural process of bubble formation due to weed activity that looks similar to soap suds in the cove.  In the early 1980s, that part of the pond was manually dredged by boat, a process too costly and not effective enough to match today’s chemical treatment of weeds.

In the late 1800s, there was an assessment of the ponds fed by Cedar Brook and forming the “Strawberry Chain” of ponds that flow to the Atlantic Ocean through Lynn. It showed that Sluice Pond had the purest water and the pond was considered for the town water supply. A decision was made instead to create the largely unnatural occurring  ponds within the Lynn Woods Reservation; Walden’s Pond, Breeds Pond, Birch Pond that are used as water supply sources in Lynn and surrounding communities.  Naturally formed ponds from the Cedar Brook (Cedar Pond, Sluice Pond, Flax Pond, Goldfish Pond and the Floating Bridge Pond)  are maintained for recreational purposes by abutters and the City of Lynn.