Weston Conservation Commission Votes Down Decades-Old Aquatic Management Extension

WESTON — July 11, 2023 — Weston Conservation Commission unanimously rejects extension of a 34-year-old aquatic management order tied to a pond swan kill. The commission voted 5-0 at its July 11 meeting to deny River School's request to extend an order of conditions for herbicide treatment of Nanesuch Pond, which dates to 1989 and was last amended in 1990. Conservation staff cited a September 2022 swan kill attributed to herbicide applicator Solitude Lake Management and noted the original order contains "virtually no special conditions" compared to current standards for pre-treatment wildlife surveys and annual reporting. Staff told the board it had "already relayed to them that I would be advising you to not extend this." The applicant must now file a new notice of intent. The commission also continued a preliminary hearing on a proposed single-family home at 12 Robin Road, where plans call for removing 40 trees within a 100-foot wetland buffer that a site-walk participant described as "pristine" and free of invasive species — a proposal Cambridge Water Department said it "cannot support" without clearer justification.