Editors, Vineyard Gazette;

Humans, as a species, have over the course of history brought great change to the planet, mostly at the cost of fragile ecosystems around the globe. Locally, very locally, in West Tisbury, the very unique Mill Brook Watershed has suffered too at the hand of man and is in serious decline as a cold water stream.

I attended the two-hour presentation by the Mill Brook Watershed Study Committee on Sunday, Feb. 23. This all-volunteer committee is made up of a thoughtful and highly professional team of young and older specialists in the field of water quality analysis led by chair, Prudy Burt.

Kudos to this group for a job well done. Clearly, the Town got its money‘s worth for funding this study.

The committee presented the results and analysis of three years of water sampling done by the group at nine locations along the course of the Mill Brook, which begins in Chilmark and terminates at Tisbury Great Pond in West Tisbury.

An analysis of the data collected clearly shows an ecosystem in serious decline, mostly due to the several dams and impoundments along its eight-mile length (all man-made), which slow the flow and cause the water to warm to a degree level for much of the year where the dissolved oxygen drops to such a low point that it cannot support the life of a free flowing cold water stream.

This ecosystem, as unique in its own right as are the sand plain habitats we spend thousands of dollars on every year mowing and burning to keep open, is in stage four decline, but not yet terminal. Clearly, it is time to act if we are to preserve this watershed for future generations.

How? As one member of the committee put forth, when beginning a reclamation effort of this nature, you start at the bottom and work your way upstream. Begin by pulling the weir boards at the dam which creates Mill Pond, the first impoundment upstream from the Great Pond, thus allowing this section to become a free flowing stream again from the next impoundment upstream all the way to Tisbury Great Pond, well over a mile.

This could be done gradually, lowering the water to stream level again over the course of a few years, giving us all a chance to adjust our senses to this change for the better. What the waterway will become could be equally as visually appealing as the pond and a whole lot better for the flora and fauna that depend on it for survival.

It’s time to let go of our nostalgic attachment to the past and live in the present and make this change for the better to begin the restoration of this critically endangered ecosystem. We, the voters of West Tisbury, have the power do this because we control this singular impoundment on the waterway. The rest are in private control. We can lead the way for a better future for the Mill Brook and hopefully others will follow.

Lynn Bouck
West Tisbury