Steve Allen sent these photos showing how much gravel and other material has washed into the pond from brooks on the west shore of the pond. The top photo is a delta from the culvert that washed out on Sandy Beach Road between Jack and Sue LaGue's home and George and Pat Parizo's. The picture below is the Allens' granddaughter standing on a large sand bar in front of the Underwood cottage that has formed between them and Keenan's (previously the Smith cottage) on West Shore Road.

We haven't taken pictures of the one next to our cottage where the water was diverted several years ago to form a brook at the junction of West Shore Road and Barre Avenue, but there is an ever increasing sandy beach that is rapidly filling in the cove between our dock and the Wards. There are at least two other brooks that empty into the pond on the Barre Avenue shore that have changed the shoreline by creating large sand bars.

In each case the natural course of the brook has been tampered with by building or road construction, filling in wetlands or otherwise changing the flow of water so it no longer flows into a filtering swamp or marsh. Where the water flow has been forced into a narrow stream instead of letting it spread over a large area, heavy rainfall creates a gushing torrent that tears away soil and debris as it gains momentum flowing towards the pond. The natural consequence is that without the swampy marshes to slow the flow and filter the sediment, new marsh areas will form where the streams empty into the pond. Cattails, water lilies, reeds and marsh marigolds will take root and there will again be a filtering system; and the configuration of the shoreline will have changed. Water area will be lost and acreage gained. In a few years there will be a re-evaluation of property and when the assessors measure waterfronts, some of our successors may find their property has more taxable shoreline than was noted in their deed!