Earth Day Essay 2012: Sandra Pond

The pastels of a summer sunset fade as the moon rises. The gurgle of water against the shore and the whir of my father’s fishing pole were the only sounds to intrude on the silence. I’ve spent countless summer evenings like this one. If I turn around, I face trails that I’ve hiked a thousand times, and could navigate through them in the dark. The wind rustles the needles of the pine, like a whispered secret being passed through the forest that I have heard before but still do not understand. The spongy, damp ground beneath my palms cools me down after a day spent in the glaring blaze of the summer sun. I close my eyes and relax as the world around me moves slowly. 

This is Sandra Pond: my second home.  I’ve spent my entire living memory on the shores of this lake.  Sandra Pond has played an important role in my life, as well as being an ecological gem to Westborough, as it is one of the few areas where a Pink Lady Slipper can grow.

The Westborough Conservation Area will always hold a special place in my heart.  Over the years I have grown to view these woods as a second home.  From frequent fishing trips, to Recreation Summer Camp, I have spent much of my time on those winding trails.  The woods are enchanting to me; especially one particularly wide path, with impossibly tall evergreens shading the area, and the bright green ferns catch every ray of sunlight and reflect the light back into your eyes.  The Conservation Area has inspired me in many walks of life: to do a research project on my own, begin an environmental neighborhood newsletter, and take a trash bag to clean up litter.  The Reservoir has always been a place of peace for me:  a place where I can wind down and be alone with my thoughts. There I am utterly tranquil.

In fourth grade, I did a research project on the Pink Lady Slipper, which I first came across in The Reservoir.  This was entirely on my own, though I did end up presenting my findings to my homeroom.  The Pink Lady Slipper is endangered in our area because they take such a long time to mature into a plant and people like to collect the beautiful orchid.  For its population of Pink Lady slippers alone, the Sandra Pond Conservation Area is a natural gem.  When I did my report on Pink Lady Slippers several years ago, I counted nearly one hundred Pink Lady Slippers.  Given the fairly small acreage of the Conservation Area, that is an incredible number of specimens.

The Sandra Pond Conservation Areas is one of the last untouched places in Westborough. So many acres of beautiful New England forests have been cut down to make room for Westborough’s ever-expanding population.  These woods are peaceful; a way to escape from the world for just an hour or two.  The only reminder of the outside world is the dull hum of the Mass Pike.  The Conservation Area is a place for reflection and recreation, and to me that makes it Westborough’s greatest natural gem.

The Westborough Conservation Area has given me many fond memories, and I want later generations to experience the joy it has given me.  For this reason, I do not hesitate to pick up any garbage I find in the Conservation Area.  It is an important place to protect for ecological and recreational reasons.    The Westborough Conservation Area is an elaborate ecosystem, and like all ecosystems, is very fragile.   The best way to protect this ecosystem is education.  When I began a newsletter with my neighbor about the environment this was our goal: to educate people in the neighborhood about how to protect the world in which we live.  In doing that report on the endangerment of the Pink Lady Slipper, I like to believe I kept a fellow student from plucking a fragile and rare flower from one of the few places it can grow in our area.  The Westborough Conservation Area has been a part of my life for a very long time, and I hope that it will be as important to someone else down the line as it has been to me.