06/05/2026
The Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (OLAUG) have scheduled 20 Cape Cod ponds for this summer’s cleanup, including six in Falmouth: Round, Jenkins, Fresh Pond, Miles (Ice House), Nye’s, and Coonamessett Pond.
Jenkins Pond is an ongoing project. Since its first cleanup in 2022, it has been cleaned annually and will continue to be until no trash remains. Early finds included beer cans, golf balls, fishing lures, bottles, and spent fireworks. Now older items have surfaced - including 50-year-old ice fishing bottles, a tin toy gun from a company that closed 60 years ago, and a turtle shell with two drilled holes that a historian said may have been used a century ago to attach a cart for turtle races.
OLAUG will also clean ponds in the lower and mid-cape areas and for the first time they will include ponds in Bourne and Plymouth.
On Monday, September 14, they have their annual public dive where the public can observe the cleanup. This year it’s to revisit both the Harwich and Brewster sides of Long Pond. More details closer to the event.
As always, OLAUG is grateful for the support of the Falmouth Water Stewards whose members work to reduce all forms of pollution in fresh water. The Old Ladies tackle the easy stuff that can be pulled up from the bottom. FWS works to control fertilizer and road run off as well as the excess nutrients that seep in from septic systems.
photos Courtesy of OLAUG (all from 2023, Jenkins Pond)
