Commission approves breach and restoration plan for Old Duck Pond Dam with O&M and monitoring requirements

The Gardner Conservation Commission voted to close the public hearing and approve a proposal to breach Old Duck Pond Dam and carry out an ecological restoration of the former pond area, subject to conditions including an approved operations-and-maintenance plan and a multi-year monitoring program.

Dennis Bell of Haley & Aldridge, representing the project proponent (Mount Wachusett Community College), summarized changes made after state comments and said the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife did not impose a time-of-year restriction; the team will seek to conduct major drawdown work before species hibernation and to plant the following spring. Bell also described a culvert design with engineered substrate intended to maintain stream connectivity.

Bell said updated resource-area calculations show the project will remove about 71,000 square feet of existing bordering vegetated wetlands that will be exposed during drawdown and create roughly 9,000 square feet of new bordering vegetated wetlands as shoreline adjusts; he filed an updated WPA Form 3 with those values.

Commissioners requested an O&M manual and a planting-monitoring plan; Bell agreed the project will include a monitoring program to achieve survival thresholds (standard practice noted at roughly 75% survival over monitoring seasons) and will submit those documents for review. The commission voted to approve the breach and restoration as proposed, with stated conditions to finalize the O&M plan and monitoring procedures before construction.

The project is listed under DEP file DEP1600678. Commissioners noted this is a large restoration project that the state is funding and that final contracting and bid steps remain; the applicant said the construction duration is expected to be three to four months with planting likely in the following spring.