Cedar Swamp Conservation Trust

Our Mission

Cedar Swamp Conservation Trust's mission is to protect the Outstanding Resource Waters (ORWs) of the Cedar Swamp ACEC. These waters and their wetland habitat are a vital resource to a significant population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Both private and Town drinking water wells are local to the swamp. In addition to the beauty of its own 2000 acres, the Swamp is the headwaters of the Sudbury River, which offers recreational and aesthetic value for miles.

The Cedar Swamp Conservation Trust (CSCT) supports the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Upper Sudbury River Study and the State's Riverways Program through volunteer work on the Whitehall and Indian Brooks in Hopkinton; and the Denny, Jackstraw and Piccadilly Brooks in Westborough. The three Westborough Brooks, along with the Whitehall, are major contributors to the Cedar Swamp, and are granted regulatory protection from adverse impacts as Outstanding Resource Waters (ORWs) of the Cedar Swamp ACEC.

Whitehall Brook at high flow level.

CSCT’s two year long monitoring of the Whitehall Brook has found flow levels dropping from spring time highs of greater than 4 feet with riffles and strong current to stressed summer lows with pooling waters and almost stagnant no-flow conditions.

Whitehall Brook at low flow level.

Our second season of monitoring at Whitehall and Indian Brooks has been aided by volunteers from the Friends of Lake Whitehall. During the stressed 2005 summer season Indian Brook became completely dry in mid-August. Indian Brook is the main feeder brook of the Hopkinton Reservoir which is impacted by excessive withdrawals from Ashland’s Town wells.

Indian Brook Dry

Seasonal low and no-flow conditions at Whitehall and the other brooks are damaging to the wildlife relying on the areas’ habitat. Residents of both Hopkinton and Westborough rely on these ORWs remaining healthy because they contribute to the areas aquifers that support both Public and Private drinking water wells. The level at the USGS flow gage at the Sudbury River Fruit Street Bridge is one of the factors used to determine if drought conditions exist, which should then require local water usage reduction enforcement.

A beaver dam in Piccadillly Brook.

White water at Piccadilly Brook.

Recently native brook trout have been documented by Mass Fisheries in the Jackstraw Brook which suffers extreme summer low/no flow conditions. During the Stream Survey work CSCT conducted this fall on the Piccadilly Brook, we were informed by a property owner of a trout breeding location in a portion of the brook on her property. We have notified the Riverways Office of this location and anticipate they will attempt to document this finding in the Spring. The survey also found a beaver dam and some tires, and other disturbing debris, as well as a few drainage pipes bringing road and yard runoff into the brook.

CSCT has also participated in the SUASCO Storm Drain Stenciling Project coordinated in this area by the Sudbury River Watershed Organization. Storm Drain Stenciling is used as an educational tool and a reminder to protect our streams and brooks which are the receptors of what we put into the storm drains.

Whitehall Brook Monitoring Photos

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Cedar Swamp Conservation Trust PO Box 996 Westborough, MA 01581 508.633.0372 trustees@csctrust.org www.csctrust.org

Edge of Cedar Swamp Pond