MT. WASHINGTON, Mass. — The Becker Pond Dam is slated for removal after almost a decade of work from The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

"We've been working on this dam removal for seven years, and are very excited that we're about to start construction in November," said Karen Lombard, The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Director of Stewardship and Restoration. 

The dam has been closed since 2016 after TNC recognized it as a hazard to the public. The dam is located on TNC’s 1,500-acre Mount Plantain Reserve.

"We were doing some routine monitoring of the Preserve, as we do every year in 2016 and we discovered that the dam was failing and could be a hazard. There was at that point a wooden bridge across the top of the dam, which was starting to shift," she said.

TNC partnered with the Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) to help permit, fund, and remove the dam. After the dam is removed, a trail will be implemented.

"We are very, very lucky early in the process, when we started the dam removal process, to partner with DER, and they have provided critical technical support and funding for this project, as has the Mass Environmental Trust. So very lucky to have them. After the dam is removed, we're very excited to open a new trail in the area. It's going to be called the Howard trail, and we've already completed some sections of the trail," Lombard said.

One of the main reasons TNC got involved with the removal of the dam is to help restore the area and the natural flow of the river.

"The most important reason that TNC was really just being a good environmental steward, doing the right thing for the brook, restoring this area and the health and function of it, as you may or may not be aware, pretty harmful to river in ecosystems," said Chris Hirsch, dam removal program manager with DER.

Hirsch explained that a dam disrupts the natural flow and ecosystem within a cold water system. This affects the fish, the natural habitat of surrounding wildlife and the water.

"It's really important to have that water flowing through the system that transports nutrients, that transport other types of structure, like wood, that are critical habitat for other wildlife. And when you build a dam in a river, you disrupt that flow of water, you slow things down, and that results in binary sediments building up behind the dam, burying those substrates so it naturally be there. In the riverine system, you're essentially slowing the water down, the water, and you're blocking fish and other aquatic organisms being able to move freely upstream and downstream," he said.

Hirsch said DER wanted to restore the natural functions of the river and sustain a cold water system. Many cold water systems have been lost due to global warming.

"In the context of global warming, cold water systems are at risk of being lost because of exacerbated heating during especially the summers. So really, the approach we took here was restoring the functions, looking at what it is that makes a system healthy, and making sure that those functions are restored and operating properly, so that this system will be on the trajectory to heal and this section will resemble what it looks like in the system, upstream and downstream. And that's really the key of creating a sustainable, resilient system," Hirsch said.

He said the removal of the dam is more beneficial to the environment and the public.

"What that means for you and the public is removing this dam will show your results in a safer recreational experience for those users who visit this site, and we're going to have a healthier river system as a whole, which will benefit the cold water species benefit anyone who enjoys angling or other sort of water based recreation," he said.

TNC and DER have two options to mobilize the heavy equipment needed to remove the dam to the dam. One was to go through private property with existing access through East Street or to make a new access from East Street.

"Unfortunately, TNC wasn't able to get an agreement to access their property, and so we're dealing with alternative two, which involves cutting a new logging road, essentially from East Street down to the existing logging road, so that we can access the site," he said.

Because they have to build new access, this will be the base of the new trail TNC is creating for the public. DER will minimize the loss of trees and will build up the trail after construction has finished with replants of trees.

"This area is going to be selected in the field and verified in order to minimize the amount of disturbance. So we're really trying our best to not cut many trees. Avoid tree cutting to the extent possible. I don't think it'll be possible to get through with no trees, and it's a forest, after all, but we're really trying to minimize that with the layout of this road. And all of the woody material that is harvested during the establishment of this road is going to be reused on site to create habitat features and floodplain complexities in the former impoundment," Hirsch said.

After construction, Hirsch said the area will be monitored to make sure there is no negative impact.

"Once construction is wrapped up here, we will be conducting monitoring for several years post-project, that monitoring is going to include site survey work to ensure that the slopes and channel dimensions are appropriate and as designed, and follow-up surveys to ensure that everything is sort of going as expected with the channel formation," Hirsch said. “We'll also be doing sediment monitoring downstream of the site to make sure that, as we expect, there won't be any negative impact of the project from a sediment standpoint, in any assistance to the barriers downstream."

In the webinar on Wednesday, an attendee asked if the animals living near the dam would be harmed. Hirsch said the deconstruction of the dam will be a slow process to allow the river and water to flow. If any animal is stuck or stranded, Mass Fish and Wildlife, as well as he, will help them move along.

"The water is going to be drawn down slowly over the course of a day or two, which really allows fish to move on out of the area. If they're unable to or get stranded. I will be out there. There will be folks from Mass Fish and Wildlife out there as well to help any fish that are stranded or trapped within the impoundment."

The construction is set to start next month, with completion next year.

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