Whitney Pond in the Mica Ledges Preserve (jointly owned by the Madison Land Conservation Trust and the Middlesex Land Trust) is a lovely, tranquil pond accessible from Cream Pot Road as well as from the Rockland Preserve trail system in North Madison. Unfortunately, the area approaching the pond usually looks like what you see in the photos above.
The sign near the site shows there is no camping, no fires allowed, no motorized vehicles, and states that what you carry in, you must carry out. Since there is no one patrolling the area, not one of those rules is observed.
A frequent hiker to this area, I have been disgusted and annoyed with the mess which greets me before I get to the edge of the pond. On Wednesday I put a huge trash bag and rubber gloves in my pockets with the requisite dog treats and picked up all the litter I could. As the photos show, a recent fire could have easily gotten out of control from the burned out plywood used to contain a campfire.
Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Why is it so easy to carry things in to this area, but impossible to clean up and carry out the trash? I have found two pieces of mail in this area recently--one from a man from Middlefield and a tax bill from someone from Madison, who lives on Durham Road. We can't blame these messes on people from other cities (as has been the case of much of the litter at Wadsworth Falls).
At least for today the pond is litter free. My question is, how long will this clean up last?
