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Sandy Pond

Sandy Pond 
 

  • 73 acres
  • Maximum depth exceeds 20 feet
  • Perimeter 1.3 miles
  • Part of the 538 square mile Nashua River Watershed
  • Located within the Petapawag ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern)
  • Receives its water from Long Pond via inlet at southeast corner
  • At outlet on western shore, water flows into Flannagan Pond through culvert underneath Snake Hill Road
  • Once by two icehouse companies in the 19th/early 20th centuries
  • Home of the Ayer Town Beach
  • Designated a “Great Pond” by Massachusetts General Law Chapter 91
And if you want to learn more…

 

General Description and History
Sandy Pond is part of the chain of hydrologically-connected ponds and streams that bisect Ayer and eventually convey their waters into the Nashua River:  Long Pond > Sandy Pond > Flannagan Pond (fed into also by Pine Meadow Pond) > Balch Pond > Grove Pond > Plow Shop Pond > Nonacoicus Brook > Nashua River.

Sandy Pond is also one of Ayer’s two natural kettle ponds (Long Pond is the other) formed as a result of glacial drift during the Wisconsin glaciation period 85,000-11,000 years ago – often referred to as the “last ice age.”

This pond is relatively sparsely vegetated, with narrow bands of moderate plant growth taking place only around much of the perimeter while the rest is open water.  More dense plant growth is primarily found in two shallow cove areas, one at the southeastern corner where the inlet receives water from Long Pond, and the other at the northwestern corner where water enters the pond through an intermittent stream coming from the area around the Ayer Gun & Sportsman Club and crossing under Wright Road through a culvert near the intersection to Snake Hill Road. 

Sandy Pond (with Long Pond) is also a Massachusetts “Great Pond.”  Great Ponds are natural bodies of water, larger than 10 acres, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts designates as public water.  The land under Great Ponds is therefore owned and held in trust by the Commonwealth in order to protect public interest and access to these waterbodies.  In 1866, Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) Chapter 91 codified into State law a policy that was first established by the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647.  The Ordinances established that the public had fundamental rights and interest in its natural resources.  It was the duty of the government to preserve and enhance these resources as well as to protect the public’s right to use them for a variety of activities.  Across the centuries, these activities have included:  fishing, hunting, swimming, boating, skating, navigation, and other forms of recreation.  At one time this even included the cutting of ice for transport and sale since Ayer was once home to at least two icehouse companies, the Boston Ice House and the Ayer Ice Company, back in the days before modern refrigeration became both possible and widespread.

Historically, once a local trolley made access to the pond possible in the 19th century, more and more summer cabins were constructed on Sandy Pond, primarily for affluent Bostonians to use as vacation retreats.  In 1945, by vote of Town Meeting, the 1.1 acre Town Beach, located on the southwest corner of the pond, was created for all Ayer residents as a place they could call “their own.”  Today most of the houses around the pond are owned by year-round residents.

Through its Community Preservation Committee and Town Meeting votes, Community Preservation Act funds have been used several times to update and enhance the Sandy Pond Town Beach, as well as to fund a comprehensive biological assessment study of this and several other Ayer ponds in order to develop better management strategies.  Through the Conservation Commission, Ayer taxpayers also fund annual pond management on Sandy Pond (and Flannagan and Pine Meadow ponds) to control the growth of non-native aquatic vegetation (including fanwort, variable leaf milfoil, and curly leaf pondweed), reduce the nuisance overgrowth of native species (water lilies, water shield, phragmites), and generally preserve the water quality of Sandy Pond for all of its public uses.

Trophic Status
Ponds, lakes and other surface waterbodies can be evaluated on scales that rate their trophic status.  This status indicates the amount of ‘biological productivity’ (or total weight of living biomass at time of measurement) that a waterbody sustains.  Biomass in a waterbody is usually dominated by either aquatic vegetation or algae.  Waterbodies can range from oligotrophic – less biomass/’good’ water quality; mesotrophic – moderate biomass/’fair’ water quality; and eutrophic to hypereutrophic – high/dense biomass/’poor’ water quality.  Too many ‘nutrients’ in a waterbody (especially from phosphorus and nitrogen runoff from stormwater, nearby fertilizer use, septic systems, etc.) will lead to an increase in plant and/or algae growth and a decrease in water quality as the process of eutrophication continues.  While eutrophication is a natural process of nutrient enrichment in aquatic ecosystems that takes place gradually over time, it can be dramatically accelerated by the impact of human activities that increase the flow of nutrients into waterbodies and their surrounding watershed.

According to the Geosyntec Consultants study of Ayer Ponds completed in 2016, as measured by the Carlson Trophic State Index (TSI) model, Sandy Pond rates as “mostly mesotrophic.”  The Carlson TSI uses water clarity and measurements of Total Phosphorus (TP) and Chlorophyll-a to make its assessment.  A different model for evaluating eutrophication is the Vollenweider model which uses measurements of a pond’s ‘flushing rate’, the TP load entering the pond from external sources, and the internal TP concentration already there [i.e. from sediment and plant decomposition]).  In contrast to the Carlson TSI, the Vollenweider model found that Sandy Pond’s TP load was enough to exceed the eutrophic threshold.  This is why efforts are made to control aquatic vegetation and to reduce external sources of runoff into ponds like Sandy Pond, in order to maintain the water quality that allows this Great Pond to continue to be a source of enjoyment to so many.

Impairment
The Federal Clean Water Act (effective in 1972) governs water pollution in the United States, and requires states to identify waterbodies that do not meet EPA standards and are designated as “impaired.”  In the most recent report, Sandy Pond is listed as a Category 4c impaired waterbody whose impairment is not caused by a pollutant.  It is listed as impaired due to the presence of non-native aquatic vegetation (primarily fanwort and variable leaf milfoil), a level of impairment that does not require a specific pollution control plan.  (By contrast, Grove Pond, Plow Shop Pond, and Nonacoicus Brook are all listed as Category 5 level impaired waterbodies due to the presence of pollutants.)

This sign project was funded by a community grant from the Nashua, Squannacook, and Nissitissit River Wild & Scenic Stewardship Council.