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Turtle Trail 4

Come and follow the Turtle Trail to learn about the history and nature of Martins Pond.

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• Much of the area around Martins Pond is wetlands. Some are acrid bogs with Pitcher Plants and Sundews. Some are vernal pools - dry in Summer, but brimming with life on the vernal equinox Spring and Fall. To the North is a large Red Maple Swamp that meets the pond with a quaking bog.
• Many interesting plants surround Martins Pond. The Yellow Pond Lilly, is nicknamed "Brandy Bottle Lilly" because its seedpod looks like a colonial brandy bottle floating in the water in the Fall. It even smells like brandy! The Cattail's seedpod looks like a scared cat! The Indians used the Cattail's roots for flour, and its fluff for pillows. The Duck Potato Arrow Root has arrow shaped leaves and is used for babies' cookies. The Canada Rush is the crunchy water chestnut used in Chinese cooking.
• WHY IS THE WATER SO MURKY? In April 1984, an environmental company performed a year-long study of Martins Pond. They found 3 major reasons for the cloudiness of the pond. 1-High amounts of phosphates in the water which feed algae. Phosphates are introduced by: nearby old septic systems, use of high phosphate detergents (now illegal), and lawn fertilizer runoff. 2-The pond is shallow. Its deepest point at only 7.25 feet with as much as 10 feet of sediment (muck) below that. The sediment occupies 70% of the original basin. 3-The fast movement of the water stirs up sediment. By the way, Oak leaves in the water give it a brownish color.
• WHAT CAN BE DONE? Alum treatments were tried in 1985, but with the fast water flow, the chemicals were soon gone and the algae returned. The recent statewide ban on phosphate detergents should improve the water's clarity. Improved septic systems or a sewerage system would also help starve the algae that cloud the water. A sewer system would reduce phosphate loading by 30%. A sewer system's cost in 1984 was estimated at $1.8 Million dollars, plus $13.5 thousand per year to maintain it. Dredging the pond would deepen it and remove the sediment that is stirred up by the fast water flow. The cost of dredging was estimated at $13 Million, or $1.2 to $1.4 Million for the pond's edge.
• In the 1980's the Martins Pond Booster's Club formed and began to hold pond activities. Picnics and winter gatherings were held at Clarke Park. When the park came into disrepair the Martins Pond Association and Playground Committee formed in 1992. The group holds 3 fundraising events per year to improve the park, and has members of the Mass. Congress of Lake and Pond Associations. As of October 2001, the group has raised over $25,000 for park improvements.
• Martins Brook is the outlet of Martins Pond. In the days before the railroads, hay had to be cut close to the farm. The naturally growing Blue-Joint Grass Swales at the pond's outlet provided free hay for early farmers. Each Fall farmers would come to Martins Pond to harvest hay from the adjoining meadows. The water flows out Martins Brook and joins the Ipswich River near the intersection of Park and Winter Streets. The Ipswich then flows out to sea by Plum Island in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Major funding for the Turtle Trail project was provided by the Martins Pond Association. Special thanks to the North Reading Business Association and the North Reading Park and Recreation Department. This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Lake and Pond Grant Program administered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management.