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Great Ponds Film Series

Having provided sustenance for countless generations of Islanders (most prior to the arrival of Europeans), the Great Ponds of Martha’s Vineyard are an ecological, cultural, and historic treasure. Today, sadly, our most valuable coastal waters are paying the price for humanity’s success: the combination of nitrogen pollution, overdevelopment, and climate change threaten their future.

That’s why VCS is so proud to partner with Circuit Arts to co-produce a three-part film series exploring the causes of—and solutions to—the problems facing our coastal ponds. Beautifully shot, directed, and narrated by filmmaker Ollie Becker, the Great Ponds series has already seen the release of two truly inspirational episodes, with the final installment currently in the works. Read on for details on the films, and for our collection of supplementary online resources.

Episode 1: On Our Watch

Released in 2022, the first episode of the Great Ponds series introduces us, through compelling interviews and science, to the ponds’ history, the threats they face, and what we all can do to save this vital resource. On Our Watch premiered at the VCS Annual Meeting and was followed by nearly a dozen screening events – and now you can watch it online!

Episode 2: Finding a Better Balance

While the challenges remain as great as ever – local nitrogen pollution and global climate change – the focus in the second episode shifts toward signs of progress. In Finding a Better Balance, we see the results of cooperative efforts by the Island community to address impacts of development and landscaping choices, and begin the long process to bring back herring, shellfish, and eelgrass populations. While offering hope, the film urges the public to consider its nitrogen and carbon footprints in relation to the ponds’ survival. Check our events page for upcoming screenings, or watch it online now!

Fixing Pond Pollution

It’s Such a Big Problem – What Can I Do to Help?

Wastewater

The largest contributor of the excess nitrogen in our ponds is the Island’s collective wastewater, especially that flowing through standard Title V septic systems. Designed to protect drinking water from contamination by harmful bacteria, Title V systems were never intended to remove nitrogen – making their widespread adoption both a boon for public health and a bane for the health of coastal ecosystems. If you own a home or business with a standard septic system, probably the most powerful action you can take for the ponds is to reduce the impact of that system. Possibilities include the use of composting toilets, installation of a nitrogen-reducing septic system, or where available, getting connected to your town’s centralized sewage treatment plant.

Lawns & Landscaping

Fertilizer is the second largest source of the nitrogen that is polluting the Island’s Great Ponds, but more important, it’s the one that’s easiest to address on an individual level – just stop using it! Embrace the “Vineyard Lawn” aesthetic and enjoy a healthy, natural lawn that is better for pets, kids, and wildlife, all while helping to restore water quality and promote local biodiversity. Another key element of the Vineyard Lawn concept is to reduce the total lawn area, allowing more of the land under your care to be a haven for nature. Vigorous and healthy native plants – grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, and trees – draw nitrogen out of the ground, actively cleaning the groundwater all while adding beauty and supporting wildlife.

Support Land Conservation

On an Island-wide level, the most effective strategy for improving the health of the ponds lies upstream, in the protection of open space and natural habitats. In fact, land conservation is the only strategy that can help mitigate all three major sources of nitrogen: wastewater, fertilizer, and atmospheric deposition (air pollution that returns to the Earth).

Picture a forest of old, tall trees, with healthy soil underneath, full of microbial life – this vibrant ecosystem is a natural sponge, absorbing nitrogen from the groundwater and using it to build and sustain itself. When we permanently protect this forest we ensure that this benefit – not to mention those to biodiversity and the climate – remains for future generations. As an individual, you can support conservation in ways large and small, from donating or selling land or a conservation restriction to a land trust, to joining us for an event like the Winter Walks or Earth Day Beach Clean-Up. Your support can be quiet and private – simply join VCS or donate to another conservation organization. Or it can be bold and public – attend meetings of town boards and advocate for open space, write letters to the editor in support of our public Land Bank, stand up and speak at Town Meeting when an article demands a stronger voice for conservation. There is truly a role for everyone who cares about protecting the future of the Island.

Advocate for a Better Balance: Conservation, Smart Growth, and Thoughtful Development

Return to that image of a forest teeming with nitrogen-absorbing life. Now imagine cutting down those trees and excavating the soil, removing some and disturbing the rest, to create a new landscape – a mix of buildings, impervious surfaces, new plantings, and lawn. Development directly adds to the nitrogen problem: runoff is increased, the new lawn might be fertilized, and the buildings will certainly produce wastewater. Less obvious, though, is the nitrogen impact from the loss of the forest itself, and the ecosystem services it provided.

It is inevitable that more land will be developed on this Island, and this will mean a loss of natural nitrogen mitigation (and other benefits of open space). Even aside from the significant problem of housing affordability, people simply need a place to live, and with a growing population that will mean more buildings. The solution, imperfect as it is, is to be more thoughtful about how we make these tradeoffs between human needs and the natural environment.

We must advocate for a better balance, through changed ideals and new policies, such as: clustering development in villages rather than dispersing it through the woods; limits to house size; limiting the total land area cleared during construction to what is truly necessary; tying open space protection to development proposals; and insisting that new housing construction should improve, not exacerbate, the Island’s affordability problem.

One such example that is particularly important to the health of the Great Ponds is how we approach decisions about public wastewater treatment. Municipal sewer systems, including those that exist in our down-Island towns, remove a large amount (over 90%) of the nitrogen from wastewater. While expansion of sewage treatment facilities is expensive in an absolute sense, it is typically more cost effective than individual de-nitrifying systems. Therefore, increased sewering can be an important part of a comprehensive solution to the nitrogen problem. But this is only true when expansion of sewage treatment infrastructure is done to extend service to existing homes and businesses, taking them off traditional septic systems. When expansion of sewering is instead done in service of creating additional development, total nitrogen loading actually increases, both due to the small amount that remains after treatment, and more important, the impact of the land clearing for construction on natural nutrient uptake (described above).

Resources

Nitrogen

Development and Nitrogen

Algae Blooms/Cyanobacteria

Wampanoag Resources

Interviewed Organizations & People

Island Organizations

Other Organizations 

Individuals 

  • Jessica Thomas, PhD Candidate, UMass Dartmouth
  • Brian (Chip) Vanderhoop, Shellfish Warden, Town of Aquinnah
  • Johnny Hoy, Herring Warden, Town of West Tisbury
  • Isaiah Scheffer, Shellfish Constable, Town of Chilmark
  • Kent Healy, Civil Engineer, WT Selectperson
  • Tara Gayle, Gayle Gardens, Owner