SOUTHWICK — Having surveillance cameras in the North Pond Conservation Area to monitor that activities going on there is already making a difference.
“I haven’t had to repair a fence since the signs went up,” said Commission Chair Norm Cheever referring to signs recently installed on the 61-acre property announcing that trail cameras are being used.
“We saw a real decrease in vandalism,” he said.
Those fences were installed after the state’s Division of Wildlife and Fisheries allowed portions of the three approved trails to be closed off from visitors to allow the severely eroded slopes along the shore to revegetate.
Before the cameras were installed nearly every time Cheever walked the property the fences had been cut or torn down by the property’s visitors.
When asked about the condition of the vegetation, especially along the slope, he said in early spring it was beginning to sprout, but since has been trampled by visitors.
There are plans to do some plantings on in the fall, he said.
The cameras have had another benefit, Cheever said.
There is a man whose property on Babb Road abuts the conservation area. He has consistently cleaned up vegetation on Kings Beach, which is strictly forbidden by the conservation restriction, and in 2021, using motorized equipment, he cut an unauthorized trail on the property and cleared natural debris from the shore, specifically along Kings Beach.
The man, who has not been publicly identified, has also routinely operated a four-wheel drive vehicle on the property.
Cheever said since the cameras and signs were installed the man has not been recorded operating an ATV on the property but has been recorded letting his dogs run loose.
But that hasn’t stopped others from using motorized vehicles.
He said the cameras have recorded other ATVs, and a golf cart.
Since July 2024, after a brawl that started in the parking lot of the conservation area that spilled onto South Longyard Road, the town has been searching for solutions to limit the overuse of the property by visitors.
The first solution was to limit the number of vehicles that can park at the property’s entrance.
“Restricting parking helped immensely,” Cheever said, who has been walking the property since mid-May documenting the violations he sees.
The town also has no parking signs along South Longyard Road and several vehicles had been ticketed.
And as of Aug. 17, he documented a total of 160 violations. The violations include littering, noting tracks of motorized vehicles, boats beaching along the shore, destruction of property, and unleased dogs with their owners.
One might think that littering would top the list, but it was the beaching of boats.
“It’s not like they coast in,” Cheever said of the boats, mostly the pontoon type, that beach there. “They come in going anywhere from 5 to 15 mph and they cause erosion every time.”
According to the conservation restriction on the property, boats aren’t allowed to beach above the high-water line along the shore but can be below the line.
That essentially means they can drop an anchor along the water’s edge, but not the beach.
Littering was the second most documented violation at 40, with destruction of property at 27, and unleashed dogs at 13.
In the two months, someone hung a rope from a tree on the shore to use as a swing and nailed boards on a tree to climb to it.
Cheever cut the rope down two weeks ago, which he showed the other commissioners at its meeting Monday.
He also announced that the 27 signs that will explicitly describe what can and can’t be done on the property had been ordered and expected to be installed in the next few weeks.
There was one slight delay a couple of weeks ago. After MassCorp, which is making the signs, got the information to be printed on them, there were a couple of misspellings.
It has been hoped the signs would be installed before the summer season wound down.
He said that once the signs are up, the Police Department has indicated it will be more proactive patrolling the area.
“They have told me they will be more diligent in enforcing the rules,” he said.
Despite the signs not yet being installed, Cheever said he’s seen progress at how the property is being used.
He said there has only been one fire reported, and no reports of people camping.
Last year, campfires and grilling were real problems, he said.
