From the very beginning the environment of the Mount Holyoke campus has been landscaped to look very “natural” and Upper and Lower Lake are no exception. In fact the lakes are man-made in origin. Upper and Lower Lake were created in 1829 and 1847 respectively by mill owners who needed a more steady supply of power so decided to build dams (27).  To read more about the damming of the lakes click here. But the earth has a tendency to want to return to its undisturbed state and herein lies the problem.  The lakes started filling back in with sediment that came from upstream and vegetation, which in turn was trapping more sediment.  Aesthetically this was posing a huge problem for the college as well as the fact that during the fall all the rotting biota on the lake bottoms was giving off unpleasant sulpherous odor bubbles. 
 
The First Draining: In 1949 Upper Lake was drained completely in order to try and get rid of the ten acres of water chestnuts that had taken over the lake.  To learn more about the invasive water chestnut click here.  The lake was drained in hopes that the sun would kill the Water Chestnuts and then they would be able to easily stop them from overtaking the entire area.  After the lake was refilled with water surface pollution prevented swimming.  But After the surface pollution cleared the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health deemed the lakes swim-able again. (24)  This lasted until 1957 when the lakes were closed to swimming indefinitely due to health and safety reasons(25).  

The Second and Third Drainings: Upper Lake was drained again in 1957 for dam repair but no dredging was done (26).  Over the course of the summers of 1985 and 1986 Mount Holyoke undertook the project of removing the build up of over 100 years of silt and vegetation that was choking the lakes. At this point the lakes were causing unpleasant smells and were no longer suitable for swimming, wading or even boating. They were called “green lakes” because the vegetation had completely taken over and the water volume was decreasing rapidly.  The goal was to remove 15,000 cubic yards of silt from the pond bottoms.  The sludge was to be dumped 100 feet off the road in a possible wetlands area which could have drastic ecological effects.  The money that made this possible came from an anonymous Alumna in the amount of 400,000 dollars and so the project was spearheaded by the current president of the time, Kennan. (27)  

Community Resistance: The surrounding community was critical of the dredging project before the second summer due to the fact that the previous summer sludge was spilt on the roads which created “a wet mess” that subsequently turned into dust.  The college promised to use leak-proof trucks to prevent this from happening but some of the community still wasn’t convinced.  (28)

Ecological Implications: Ecologically the lakes were trying to return to their natural state as a small stream surrounded by wetlands but the college wanted them to stay lakes.  The dredging was detrimental in an ecological sense because in completely removing the vegetation that had colonized the lakes the sediment that was left would become very unstable and uninhabitable for some key pond species.  Also the dumping of the silt that was removed in a possible wetland could decimate the populations that previously lived there.  This is an example of the constant battle between nature and man who both want to have a hand in the creation of the environment.   

Back        Next