Fact based Mill Pond data

0

To the Editor:

For the last several years, West Tisbury voters have been discussing management options for the town-owned Mill Pond, through which four-mile-long Mill Brook flows before entering Tisbury Great Pond, a half mile south of Mill Pond.

From the beginning, there has been a good deal of emotion attached to the historical and aesthetic significance of the pond. While I also appreciate the history of the pond, what I have wanted to learn more about is the health of Mill Brook itself, which predates the dammed pond by roughly 10,000 years.

To my mind, it is important to have as much fact-based data as possible when making a decision of any kind about such an important issue.

Over the last few years, I have coordinated several extremely well-attended presentations by generous folks willing to share their experience and expertise. This Sunday, March 23, I invite everyone to come hear Steve Hurley, southeast district fisheries manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, talk about the results of the fish sampling survey he and his crew undertook on Mill Brook in September 2012. Steve will also discuss the water temperature monitoring that has been underway since May of last year and what those results mean for the health of Mill Brook and its native fish.

I hope to see you there, 3 pm at the Public Safety Building in West Tisbury, across State Road from Up-Island Cronig’s.

Prudy Burt

West Tisbury