Letter to the Editor

Pond is worth saving

Wed, 09/14/2016 - 7:15pm

Dear Editor:

I am writing in regards to the broken siphon on the dam at West Harbor Pond. I have been vacationing in Boothbay Harbor my entire life … I hate to admit how many years that has been. I live outside of Boston and have only been to Cape Cod four or five times. The reason being, is that my grandfather bought a waterfront property on Linekin Bay in 1922. He paid only $200 for the lot. On a gentleman's handshake he was given the lumber to build the cottage which he paid for the next summer. On a teacher’s salary, this wasn’t an easy thing to do. I never met my grandfather but I always appreciate the gift that he gave me which was the love of Boothbay Harbor. I can’t imagine going anywhere else.

One of my fondest memories is my mother loading up the car with me and my eight brothers and sisters to go for a swim at West Harbor Pond. She would park at what is now the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club parking lot. We would all pile out, towels over our shoulders, to go for a swim. It was one of the highlights of my summer. The town sold that lot sometime in the mid-1970s when I was a teenager.

For the past 14 years I have been very fortunate to spend a lot of time on this beautiful pond. The wildlife it supports is amazing. This year alone, I have seen a pair of beavers, porcupines, turtles, fish, bald eagles. There are loons, osprey, hummingbirds, yellow-rumped, black and white, black-throated, blue and magnolia warblers to name a few. All living in, around, or migrating over the pond. The cold weather will be here before we know it along with the arrival of the buffleheads. I have been fortunate enough to watch generations of osprey learn to fish on this pond. Anyone driving over West Harbor Pond can see its beauty.

Regardless of public access, this Great Pond is a treasure which is worth saving due to the wildlife alone.

Brenda MacGovern

Newton, Massachusetts and

West Boothbay Harbor