Alison Shaw, a photographer and artist who has a year-round home overlooking Farm Pond in Oak Bluffs, long has marveled at the beauty and the wildlife of the pond and its surroundings.

"I love watching the changes in the color of the marsh grass from season to season," Ms. Shaw said. "They are gray in the winter. It is full green in spring, and it is now brown and rusty colored.

"I love the location," she said. "You can be in the middle of nowhere, like up-Island, and it it is a five-minute walk to downtown. I feel I get the best of both worlds."

But Farm Pond, despite its pristine appearance, is on a state priority list as among the ponds in Massachusetts most in need of help.

The serene, 33-acre coastal saltwater pond, though partly surrounded by undeveloped conservation land, is in a critical state. Water quality is deteriorating. Rich nutrient loading from septic systems, lawn fertilizers, storm drain runoff and other sources is overstressing the pond's watershed, which covers 500 acres of watershed. A bucket of water dumped in the watershed eventually will make its way into the pond. Yet devotees of Farm Pond hope steps can be taken toward its revival. Through a coordinated effort by the town, state Coastal Zone Management and other state agencies, Farm Pond is getting a lot of attention these days. The efforts include the study of plants in the pond's marshland; tidal flow; water quality; and eelgrass, shellfish and fish.

“Farm Pond is the largest restoration project the town has ever done," Oak Bluffs shellfish constable. David Grunden said.

Last week, Jeremy Bell, a Coastal Zone wetlands scientist, came down to join with local town officials to do a survey of plants in the marshland at the pond's edge. Mr. Grunden, together with town conservation commission agent Liz Durkee, helped Mr. Bell. The pond's water quality has been monitored in different studies for years. But now, for the first time, scientists are ashore monitoring the plants and animals on the land. The health of any saltwater pond can be determined in part by the plants that flourish or fail. The project involved setting up more than 30 stations of one meter squares. They identified marsh grasses and bushes.

Farm Pond is beset by harmful phragmites, an invasive and aggressive tall grass that suggests an overabundance of nutrients. Phragmites is pushing away the more natural plants. Mr. Grunden said. Farm Pond fortunately still has a vibrant area of cattails, suggesting the pond is still in part healthy. Two years ago next month, the pond was placed on Coastal Zone's Wetlands Restoration Program's priority list of ponds in need of help. Being added to the Massachusetts Estuaries Project also brings state funds and resources to the town in its aggressive effort to reverse the downward slope.

Estuaries are critical to the health of not only the shores, but many species of plants, fishes and birds. In the state system, Farm Pond is a poster child in the struggle to revitalize failing estuaries. Next month, Mr. Grunden is giving a talk at the America Estuaries Conference in New Orleans. His topic is Farm Pond. Greg Skomal, a state Division of Marine Fisheries biologist, who just finished a survey of fishes in the pond last week, said yesterday that estuaries such as Farm Pond are of critical importance to many fish.

"Almost all species of fish of commercial importance spend some part of their lives in an estuary," Mr. Skomal said. "That is how important they are.”

Estuaries are the coastal frontline between the growing human footprint on the landscape and nature's natural buffer between the ocean and the land. Fortunately, conservation land surrounds the pond and insulates the shoreline from future development. The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank owns one large parcel of land right off Beach Road that fronts the pond with 1,500 feet of shoreline. The Town of Oak Bluffs owns another large area to the south of the pond, off South Circuit avenue. That is managed by the land bank and includes another large area of shoreline. Woodie Island, a small isle in the pond, is also in conservation. On the positive side, the pond does have underwater eel grass beds, but Mr. Grunden said those plants are clearly stressed by the impact that nutrients have on the water.

"The marsh grasses take up a lot of the nitrogen loading that comes from the groundwater," Mr. Grunden said. They act as a buffer.

Last summer the Martha's Vineyard Commission, with the help of the state and local volunteers, conducted a survey of eel grass beds in the pond using new GPS technology. They found a total of 12 acres. The data is being compared to a survey done eight years ago. Further, water quality sampling of the pond has been conducted by the Martha's Vineyard Commission for the last three years with help from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Shellfish tell another troubling story about the pond.

Years ago, a healthy population of shellfish resided in the pond. Since 1985, however, the pond has been closed to shellfishing.

"The pond is fed by groundwater," Mr. Grunden said. "There is a little stream that used to support a herring run."

The town shellfish department did a survey for shellfish and found only a few bay scallops, some quahaugs and steamers. Oysters which used to be plentiful in the pond years ago weren't found.

"We need to increase the circulation and flushing in the pond," Mr. Grunden said.

A 47-inch culvert brings clean saltwater into the pond from Nantucket Sound with the change of every tide. As part of the coastal zone management involvement, a study was done on how big the culvert would have to be to solve the water quality problems in the pond.

"Coastal Zone Management paid thousands of dollars for a preliminary flushing model for the pond which indicates that instead of the 47-inch culvert there now, there would have to be a 16-foot opening," Mr. Grunden said.

The opening could be a wider culvert or a small bridge.

"Outside in the Sound the tidal range is two feet," he said. "With the current culvert, the tidal range inside the pond is six inches. When it comes to tidal flushing, that is a moderate to severe restriction."

"But like every pond suffering nitrogen loading, where dilution is the solution, you are only treating the symptom, not the problem," Mr. Grunden said. Increasing the tidal flow can only be a part of the remedy.

Other steps involve reducing the amount of nutrients entering the groundwater, a far more ambitious effort. Any recommendations on what to do will be based on proved science, Mr. Grunden said, adding that the Farm Pond studies won't simply sit on a shelf.

"We will be able to make recommendations to town boards as to the treatment of our own waste, whether it is cluster treatment systems, whether it is the usage of de-nitrification septic systems or completely sewering the area," Mr. Grunden said.

"We have to look at what our expected results will be. Part of those recommendations will consider costs. Sewering is the most expensive."

The effort to study and preserve Farm Pond have been extensive, but Mr. Grunden said the pond is worth it.

"The health of Farm Pond is declining, but there is still enough time to save it and restore it," he said. "This is a time to be proactive."

http://www.mvgazette.com/features/?story=20061027_farm_pond