Farm pond (part deux)
April 30th, 2007Ethan already did a great post about Farm Pond but I thought I’d do another one since we went there over the weekend.
On the top my list of favorite animals are turtles, and I love getting a glimpse of them in the wild. I had some as pets that I set up in a “luxury” tank (waterfall filter system, vitamin D lights, proper PH, live fish to eat) 10 years ago but had to give them up when I moved to the west coast. I still think about them and hope they got good homes and I love seeing turtles outside enjoying themselves.
What I also noticed at Farm Pond was the number of turtles enjoying themselves on tires people have thrown into the pond and the surrounding area.Â
I’m not completely sure what the effects of tires in the pond are, but my gut feeling tells me it’s probably not a good thing, in addition to it looking terrible. I know tires on the ground that have pools of water in them harbor mosquito breeding.Â
It’s surprising that people took the time to drive these down to a section of the pond that is on the same street as the recycle drop off building, or they could have just called the Department of Public Works for curbside pick-up. Yes, it’s $2 a tire but how many tires could someone have that they can’t afford properly disposing of these things?Â
I started wondering what kind of person doesn’t think anything of rolling tires into a pond and the image of Cletus Spuckler came to mind.
I know the turtles were enjoying themselves but I called the Board of Health (as directed on the DPW website) about getting these removed.Â
Anyway, it was nice to see so many turtles. I happened to be looking the other way but Ethan said he saw one about 1.5 feet long before it slipped into the water. I’m guessing it was a snapper but was still bummed I missed seeing it so I’ll believe he just made that up : )
Farm Pond, besides the tires, is nice. People were sunning themselves and walking their dogs in the middle part and I’m glad there is a place in this area to do enjoy.
Wow.
Your pictures of turtles basking on old tires are a kind of stark metaphor for Framingham’s contrasts.
And speaking of trash and such, I just want to make a gratuitous plug and remind you and your other readers that this upcoming Saturday (5/5) from 9-noon is the renewed “Framingham Green Up day”.
See http://framingham.com/cgi-bin/cal/cal.cgi?f_mm=4&f_yyyy=2007 for more info.
Comment by Matt — April 30, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Cool! I have yet to see turtles at Farm Pond Park but I have seen *plenty* of tires. Was wondering the exact same thing just a couple of weeks ago about why they get dumped there and who’s dragging them all the way down to the water. Maybe people are intending to go to the recycling place but don’t realized its hours are very restricted? So odd.
Comment by Jenn — May 1, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
Some of tires may have been there for decades. There used to be a plenty of tires around town in swamps, the Resevior, everywhere! Most are now stuck deep in the mud never to be removed.
Some of those turtles get real big too. The cops shot one when I was a kid cause us kids were playing with it. (The 60’s were really violent!) It could snap a stick right in half!
I remember that the small swap behind the WKOX towers was a place you could find both tires and lots of turtles. That is also the place near where the old town dump (now the brush dump) was. What good planning it was to be putting it next to what was then the town’s drinking water supply!
The town dump would catch fire every so often and pitch black smoke would come up that could be seen for miles! Maybe it was tires burning! I do not think the turtles had anything to do with starting the fires but you never know!
In the 60’s there used to be the remains of an old disintergrating Model T Pickup near by that swamp but that has probably now gone back to the iron ore from which it came. I guess that area is a “boat launch” now. In the 60’s it was a short cut from the COOP Supermarket (now the used clothes place) to the Bowlarama (now the Court house.)
(I noticed they have demolished the original reduction plant? Mt. Wayte residents SCREAMED to stop that from being put there but were out voted at town meeting. I guess it was a mini 1940’s version of “Smart Growth!”)
What is the moral of my posting? Many things may have changed around Farm Pond but I guess it’s turtles are forever!
Comment by Mister Chandu — May 4, 2007 @ 3:24 am