By Amy Markarian, Senior Copywriter

KINGSTON– On July 28, Wildlands Trust received a $729,000 state grant to remove the Sylvia Place Pond dam in Kingston, MA. The award will allow the conservation group to improve public safety in the area and to restore fish passage by conducting a breach of this significant hazard, poor-condition dam.

Governor Charlie Baker announced the 2021 Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Dam and Seawall Program grant recipients from Gloucester’s Haskell Pond Dam on Wednesday. 28 grantees, including the conservation group and 27 cities and towns across Massachusetts, will receive more than $17 million to help repair failing dams, seawalls, and levees. Since the grant program’s inception in 2013, more than $95 million have been provided to address the state’s aging structures.

Wildlands Trust’s Executive Director, Karen Grey, says, “We have to be concerned with how severe storm activity is taking a toll on aging infrastructure. With this funding we can now eliminate the growing public safety issues to residents living downstream of this dam.”

Sylvia Place Pond is nearly surrounded by Wildlands Trust’s 27-acre Stewart/Person Preserve, in Kingston. The Sylvia Place Pond Dam has outlived its usefulness as an historic impoundment for mill power and ice harvesting. It is part of a series of interconnected manmade ponds that were originally constructed to supply power to nearby mills. There is a herring ladder at the north end of the pond that allows fish to complete their annual trek upstream for spawning in nearby Russell Pond. The area is also home to such wildlife as red fox, otter, mink, deer, osprey, and great blue heron.

Wildlands Trust is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving land and preserving the natural heritage of Southeastern Massachusetts. The organization works to permanently protect and steward important habitats and landscapes, including woodlands and fields, ponds, coastal areas, agricultural lands, and river systems. Founded in 1973, Wildlands Trust has worked to protect nearly 13,000 acres of open space in 48 Massachusetts towns.