Littleton Conservation Commission holds firm on herbicide-only lake treatment applications

LITTLETON — February 3, 2026 — Littleton Conservation Commission keeps herbicide-only lake treatment applications intact despite Clean Lakes pushback. The six-member commission, meeting over Zoom on February 3, voted by consensus to resubmit three Community Preservation Committee funding applications for aquatic invasive treatment at Long Lake and Forge Pond exactly as originally written, rejecting Clean Lakes Committee suggestions to add manual extraction as an allowable method and to broaden the timeline from 2026 to a three-year window. Clerk Andrew Sammarco, who attended the prior CPC meeting, told commissioners the choice was straightforward: "Given the calendar year approach that we're looking at, herbicides just seem like the route that we're going to be taking." Resident David Barr of 49 Matawanakee Trail warned the commission that a narrowly written application had previously left the Clean Lakes Committee unable to redirect unused funds when field conditions changed, and argued the Forge Pond plan was missing a watershed assessment required by state guidance when a watershed exceeds 10 times a lake's size — for Forge Pond, the ratio is 70 to one. The commission acknowledged the concern but said incorporating a full watershed study would substantially expand the plan's scope and cost, and directed Conservation Agent Tim Pearson to resubmit the applications unchanged while continuing to pursue cost-sharing talks with Westford.