By Mike Donovan
RUSSELL–The Boy Scouts at Russell Pond have used boulders to block access to the former Blandford Club dock and boathouse, preventing fishermen and others from launching their boats onto Russell Pond, according to fisherman Bill Hardie.
“Fishermen are being shut out of Russell Pond,” he said last week.
The Horace A. Moses Boy Scout Reservation owns nearly all of the property bordering the pond, part of 1,600 acres Moses bestowed on the organization in his will in the 1940s. The rest of the shoreline is privately owned.
For many years the Blandford Club maintained a dock and boathouse just east of the Russell Town Beach under an agreement with the Boy Scouts, but haven’t used it in about ten years. As a result, the property has reverted to the Boy Scouts and the boathouse has fallen into disrepair. The Boy Scouts still allowed people to launch their boats there, however, until last summer, when they blocked the access way with boulders.
Iltyd Fernandez-Sierra, chair of the town’s recreation committee, which maintains and operates the town beach at the pond, said he believes the organization’s insurers were concerned about liability if anyone were injured on the property, which is steep and rocky.
“If someone were injured they could be sued,” he said.
Hardie is disappointed, however, saying he has often brought his canoe to the pond and launched it from the dock area but no longer can. As a former member of the town’s conservation commission he also arranged for the stocking of the pond with trout for the past several years.
“We put 300 trout in the pond over the past three years but not this spring because there’s no access,” he said.
He said there may be several solutions to the problem, including pursuit of a grant to construct an access way through a wooded area on the westerly side of the town beach. He is considering contacting the state division of fish and wildlife to see whether any grants are available there. Another possibility, he said, might be for the town to take property for an access way by eminent domain.
Fernandez-Sierra said the recreation committee does not allow boats to be launched from the town beach because the craft would interfere with people who come there to swim. At one time, boaters accessed the water by a path directly adjacent to the east side of the beach, but it’s now in poor condition due to runoff from Birch Hill Road and the beach parking area.
“It isn’t easily passable,” he said. “The runoff has worn channels and it’s very rocky.” He said it wouldn’t be possible to back a boat trailer down the grade.
According to Fernandez-Sierra, if public access to the water were provided at the pond, the state would agree to stock it, but at present the only stocking has been by the town conservation commission.
“I’d like to see better access to all the water spots in town,” he said. One that particularly interests him is the mill pond in Woronoco, which has considerable potential but is mostly bordered by undergrowth and difficult terrain.
At press time a representative of the Western Massachusetts Boy Scout Council returned our call to confirm that the property had reverted to the council and had been closed to the public due to liability issues.
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