Walden Pond Bad News FYI

Triathlon Forum
1

"The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) manages more than 80 ocean beaches and inland waterfronts across the Commonwealth. Ensuring the safety of our visitors and staff at these facilities is our highest priority.

Over the last three years, there have been 28 saves by lifeguards at DCR’s Walden Pond, 13 of these saves came from outside of the designated swimming areas. Water rescues in depths of more than 20 feet put swimmers, lifeguards, and emergency response personnel at a greater risk. In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of inexperienced swimmers attempting to cross the pond creating a new and more urgent public safety challenge for the agency.

Walden Pond is a kettle pond that has a depth greater than 100 feet (108’) at its deepest point. In an effort to ensure the public’s safety at Walden Pond, while attempting to accommodate the growing popularity of long-distance swimming, DCR recently shared a draft proposal with The Walden Pond Advisory Board and other community stakeholders that would create an unobstructed, 125 yard swim lane for distance swimming in a designated unguarded swimming area. This proposal has been met with some skepticism by community advocates. As a result of ongoing conversations with advocates and emergency responders, this proposal is no longer being considered.

In the next several weeks the agency will continue its dialogue with the recreational user community, public safety officials, and emergency responders to develop a sustainable plan that balances various recreational uses with swimmer safety. "

Damn it.

2

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo can we still swim there???

4

well see how long that lasts for. Where else can swim around the greater boston area?? other then Mystic lake

5

No clue to be honest…maybe someone else can chime in?!

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"The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) manages more than 80 ocean beaches and inland waterfronts across the Commonwealth. Ensuring the safety of our visitors and staff at these facilities is our highest priority.

Over the last three years, there have been 28 saves by lifeguards at DCR’s Walden Pond, 13 of these saves came from outside of the designated swimming areas. Water rescues in depths of more than 20 feet put swimmers, lifeguards, and emergency response personnel at a greater risk. In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of inexperienced swimmers attempting to cross the pond creating a new and more urgent public safety challenge for the agency.

Walden Pond is a kettle pond that has a depth greater than 100 feet (108’) at its deepest point. In an effort to ensure the public’s safety at Walden Pond, while attempting to accommodate the growing popularity of long-distance swimming, DCR recently shared a draft proposal with The Walden Pond Advisory Board and other community stakeholders that would create an unobstructed, 125 yard swim lane for distance swimming in a designated unguarded swimming area. This proposal has been met with some skepticism by community advocates. As a result of ongoing conversations with advocates and emergency responders, this proposal is no longer being considered.

In the next several weeks the agency will continue its dialogue with the recreational user community, public safety officials, and emergency responders to develop a sustainable plan that balances various recreational uses with swimmer safety. "

Damn it.

The math doesn’t make sense. More than half of the “saves” came from inside the designated areas. So they should close the designated swimming areas.

Anyways, I am swimming there on Sunday.

7

I’ve gone in pleasure bay in Southie, and at Malibu beach in Dot in the past. Walden is better by far though

8

found this on the DCR website. Natick isn’t to far, Ashland either.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/recreational-activities/freshwater-inland-beaches.html

9

Can you give a link to this article?

10

Silver Lake in Hollis, NH is just over 1/2 hr away from the Bedford area (where I live), and is nearly a mile long. Good place to swim and then ride from.

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found this on the DCR website. Natick isn’t to far, Ashland either.

http://www.mass.gov/…-inland-beaches.html

Ashland and Natick have boat traffic. Part of the charm of Walden is except for the staff boats you have just a few kayaks in general to deal with.

Concord is a VERY fascist town. The populous today would have stoned and quartered Thoreau as well as this is the town than banned the sale of water in plastic bottles. For the record, I grew up here as well as spent part of my time in the public school system in Concord.

Enjoy your swimming while you can. The view of Concord and the DCR is a drowned baby is a tragedy, but a drowned OWS is avoidable.

The long and short, people die and drown inside the controlled ropes, regardless of the lifeguards - One of the guys I used to work with is one of those people - drowned in 6 ft of water in Ashland on July 31, 2010.

The way the DCR looks at it… they have a chance of saving people inside the ropes… they have almost no chance for those in the middle of the pond.

It sucks, but you have to be protected from yourself… OWS in places like Walden have their days numbered

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The only dangerous thing about swimming in walden is the asshat teenage lifeguards speeding around the pond in the motor boat.

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This thread is an example of lack of reading comprehension. The summary is:

The DCR removed their proposal to restrict swimming to a 125 yd open lane. They are not anticipating any policy changes over previous years.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/17/dcr-withdraws-proposal-restrict-swimming-walden-pond-after-backlash/NkBT9f2c0jI4btLvV2KHGP/story.html

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Actually no… I comprehend it very well.

There has been a talk of an OUTRIGHT Ban for OWS at Walden and other DRC bodies, some of it for aesthetics, a lot of it for liability. While the DRC proposed the swim lane and that was tabled, that just means that a ban may be more likely. There are two factors here. One is liability, and one is conservation. How many towns have banned the same of bottled water (plastic) - Concord is one.

Yet the state’s pond-policing has received an unlikely endorsement — from the head of the Thoreau Society, whose stated purpose is to keep the philosopher’s “ideas alive around the globe and across generations,” according to its website.

“I don’t see how they could let it go unfettered,” said Michael Schleifer, who admitted to being “shocked” the first time he saw open-water swimming at Walden. “I’d be in support of at least some degree of restriction or an outright ban. … Maybe a swimmer should travel with a companion in a boat or a kayak following them. I don’t know how practical that is, but there should be some degree of safety measure taken.”

Shabat claimed the state’s real motivation is preventing lawsuits.

“They told us the issues were largely about safety,” she said. “It became clear even before the meeting that the main issue seems to be liability. … It’s pretty obvious that DCR is coming under pressure from I don’t know who to do something about that.”

The whole issue of a swim lane, given the volume of swimmers would be insane and unmanageable. It was ill-conceived from the beginning.

Forget the year, maybe 2005, but the lifeguards were more aggressive with yelling at or trying to stop people from swimming. Folks like myself would try to do before or after hours, and the State got more aggressive with parking enforcement since there is little place to park near when the gates are closed that is not No Parking zoned.

Other towns, like Amesbury, handle the liability by “out of sight, out of mind” There is technically no OWS on Lake Gardner, and if you swim during the day when life guards are there, you can be fined. Forget the hours, but used to have to swim early morning or after 5 or 5:30 when the life guards went off duty.

Walden faces two issues… liability, but also conservation since it is a historical site

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Whatever. The article the OP was referring to is good news, not bad.

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Whatever. The article the OP was referring to is good news, not bad.

I wasn’t referring to an article I was referring to a statement made by The DCR, you were referring to an article.

The fact is Concord residents and the DCR unfortunately will probably ban OWS out of bounds this year or shortly

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Whatever. The article the OP was referring to is good news, not bad.

I wasn’t referring to an article I was referring to a statement made by The DCR, you were referring to an article.

The fact is Concord residents and the DCR unfortunately will probably ban OWS out of bounds this year or shortly

Amen to that… Not in the sentiment, but as a barometer of the climate.

There has been an aggressive push since the late 80s to ban swimming at Walden, especially OWS. While some may look at the recent pull back of the 125M swim lane as a positive, it can also be looked at as they wanted to ban OWS at Walden, someone came up with a compromise, that compromise has been shot down, and while DRC says it is business as usual, it leaves the DRC really leaning closer to ban than not ban.

Now while some may say it is reactionary, remember that business have been shut down, people relocated, and major changes in the name of protecting a certain species of animal who has a natural habitat. The same is often done to preserve a national park or historical location.

People were upset with the idea of banning the sale of water. After all which is healthier, a bottle of coke or a bottle of water?

You can still get the plastic bottle of coke? The water… Not in Concord.

So if you think some thing that is “Active” and “Healthy” and beneficial means it is safe… That seems logical, and this is Concord… Where the liberal progressive and being “Green” trumps everything.

This is about traffic.
This is about erosion.
This is about disturbing the “pristine” nature of the pond.

And while you may think that is cuckoo, also know that back in the late 80s some nuts wanted to ban ALL SWIMMING, even the kids and waders.

The battle has been going on for ages, but these people have a much better shot today, than 30 years ago, because common sense, like banning bottled water but leaving bottled coke, is the rule of the day

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“I wasn’t referring to an article I was referring to a statement made by The DCR, you were referring to an article.”

Whatever you were referring to, and whatever the climate is in Concord where they’ve been talking about banning open water swimming since the 80s but haven’t actually banned it, the fact is that they were trying to limit open water swimming to a 125 yd lane, and the staement was that they are no longer going to do that and people would be able to continue using the entire pond as they have in the past. That is good news. Your OP made people think that OWS was banned from Walden, which caused people to propose other (far) crappier and more dangerous alternatives.

19

Dug Pond in Natick: easy free parking, clean water year round (unlike Mystic) and directly next to a nice running track and good roads for biking

Farm Pond in Sherborn: better water quality and even quieter, more peaceful and beautiful than Walden Pond. No free parking, but a 1.5 mile bike or jog from free parking in Sherborn. By far the best open water swimming in the greater Boston area.

Morses Pond in Wellesley: great water quality. Parking not free BUT you can park close to the pond and walk from free parking, such as the Wellesley track or from Rt. 9 and take the aqueduct trail to swim from the far side of the pond. The walks are not much longer than from the Walden parking lot to the water.

I like Walden, but the three choices above are better in my opinion regardless of Walden being open or closed to open-water swimmers.

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The populous today would have stoned and quartered Thoreau

Thoreau would have taken off for Alaska around about the time the 3rd triath-a-lete showed up.