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Cleaning up our ponds will be a challenge. Yet there are a number of actions that you can take by becoming a pond steward in your own yard and eliminating pollutants from entering your pond. Here are six quick steps that will help. You can find links to further information on all of these topics on the Resources page.
1. Septic Systems
Keep your septic system functioning properly by having it pumped at least every 3 years. Support town efforts to sewer areas of town where it makes sense. Support subsidies or low/no interest loans for denitrification systems (which remove most of the nitrogen, but cost more to install and operate than regular septic systems). Find about more about urine diversion and other alternatives to waste disposal and treatment.
2. Fertilizer, pesticide, and insecticide application
This one's pretty easy - just stop adding these things and be at peace with a lawn that includes clover, dandelions (these are really important for bees early in the season as they are often the first and only things blooming) and violets. Not only will the bees and butterflies be happy, but these lawns are beautiful! If you are starting a new lawn, use native fescues, which are adapted to our soils and climate. Let your lawn go dormant mid-summer – it will come back with the fall rains, and in the meantime you won't need to mow as much! No need to irrigate. When you do mow the lawn, leave the clippings behind. A "Cape Cod lawn" will get plenty of nitrogen from these clippings when they break down, and from atmospheric deposition of nitrogen. No need to add fertilizer! Be proud of your Cape Cod lawn – you are helping our ponds and providing habitat!
Do you like to see birds in your yard? According to Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home and Nature's Best Hope, a pair of chickadees need to feed their young between 6,000 and 9,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chicks. Where will they get them if everyone is spraying and killing all the caterpillars in their yards? Caterpillars are part of many important food chains – unless they are causing lethal damage to your trees, leave them be and let the birds control them naturally by feeding them to their young! You can further encourage this process by planting native species of shrubs and trees that will attract wildlife and give them nesting and hiding places as well as food. Doug Tallamy is incredibly inspiring. Listen to him in this webinar. And read this account or watch this video by Falmouth pond-front dweller Alison Leschen about how she and her husband transformed their yard from a typical suburban "wasteland" to a haven for pollinators, birds and other wildlife (photos left).
3. Run off
Consider planting a rain garden and diverting roof water from gutters to rain barrels. If you live on a pond, planting a buffer of native plants can help divert runoff as well as take up nutrients before they reach the pond. Consider installing a driveway that allows water to percolate slowly into the ground instead of asphalt.
You can also help by encouraging the town to increase the DPW's budget to either increase its own capacity to maintain storm drains or contract out some of the load.
4. Atmospheric deposition
Much atmospheric deposition is generated locally, so we can help reduce it by driving less and minimizing use of gas engines like lawnmowers and leaf blowers.
5. "Contaminants of emerging concern"
CVS has a collection box for OTC and prescription drugs you no longer need. It is free to dispose of them in this box, which is located back by the pharmacy in the Davis Straits store – it's open 24/7.
6. Trash in the ponds
This one's kind of easy, too - don't throw trash in the ponds! 😄 Just because you can't see it anymore doesn't mean it isn't hurting the wildlife and water quality. We get that it's fun to hit golf balls into the pond, but please confine them to a driving range or golf course. And if you build a new dock, please dispose of the old one properly. By all means have a party on the pond, but don't make beer can-chucking part of the fun! And obviously cars and their various parts don't belong in the water! We know we're probably preaching to the choir on this one, but we didn't know about the golf ball thing ourselves until we started researching it, so we can all keep learning.
And of course you can join Falmouth Pond Coalition, either by volunteering or supporting their efforts.
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