Georgica: To Let It Flow or Not

The funny thing about Memorial Day’s being considered the beginning of summer is that it is not really the beginning of anything, at least not as far as the weather goes. The calendar tells us almost a month of spring is yet to come by the time the big weekend crowds arrive and the season plays along, frustrating those who would want the weather to behave otherwise.

Because of rain, spring has been notably strong. Grass seems in need of perpetual cutting. Trees and roadsides became almost jungle-like overnight. Pollen covered everything, and then we were thankful that it washed away. Birds seemed to rejoice in the abundance of it all. The ponds are brimming. 

Ah, the ponds. Representatives of a number of Georgica homeowners have asked the town trustees for an emergency cut across the sand to relieve flooding, arguing that conditions are ripe for an increased algae bloom. Normally, the trustees authorize twice-yearly “lettings” of the pond and are unsympathetic to requests to diverge from that timetable, in part to protect the endangered least terns and piping plovers known to nest on the shoreline.

We are reminded of what the late Stuart Vorpahl had to say about such requests. Mr. Vorpahl would frequently recall the time a Georgica grandee came before the trustees to protest. “Your pond is on my lawn!” the landowner cried. “No,” Mr. Vorpahl, a trustee, told him, “your lawn is in our pond.”

That attitude has not always been appreciated by pond-front residents, some of whom took it upon themselves several times in the past to illegally open a channel to the ocean under cover of night. This should not be allowed to happen this year, and the trustees and law enforcement officials must make sure it does not. 

Mr. Vorpahl had it right.