Friends of Wellfleet Ponds Mid-Summer 2026
Welcome to the FWP newsletter- Report from FWP Annual Meeting
- It's HOT! I Want to Swim in the Coolest Pond!
- Tales From a Pond Parking Lot Attendant
- FWP News
All issues of the FWP newsletter can be found at the FWP website.
Wonderful Turnout at
FWP Annual Meeting!On a perfect summer afternoon more than 100 friends and supporters of the FWP gathered at Preservation Hall for the organization’s first Annual Meeting on July 16. It was a wonderful turnout for the message of the urgent need to protect the ponds.  Herb Gstadler and Laura Hewitt, welcomed the crowd on behalf of FWP. The featured speaker, Andrew Gottlieb, from the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, presented the various challenges facing the more than 800 ponds on the Cape, reminding the audience of the vast range of different conditions among the ponds.
Gottlieb also pointed out that while many of the towns, including Wellfleet, are addressing marine water quality and nitrogen loading in estuaries and harbors, similar attention regarding phosphorus loading and the impact on the ponds, is also needed. Gottlieb stressed that while individual actions are important, the protection of the Cape’s fragile aquifer demands a collective response to the challenges facing the ponds and our water supply.
FWP board members, Sharon and Gary Kreamer, then described FWP’s work during its first year in existence, and also gave a very informative account of the natural conditions in the ponds. They both stressed the need to take good care of our ponds.
A lively social hour, in the beautiful garden of Preservation Hall followed.
IT'S HOT!
I Want to Swim in the Coolest Pond! In the heat of the summer, it can be quite refreshing to swim in a cool Wellfleet pond. But some swimmers, wanting the best experience, have asked us which pond is the coolest. There are different opinions on this and some will say that they avoid one or another pond because the water in it is too warm. But, the actual conditions are not that simply described as they can vary from day to day, from shallow to deeper water, and from one point in a pond to another. In fact, it is common, when swimming in a pond, to encounter adjacent patches of water which vary quite a bit in temperature, and sometimes, passing from one temperature to another, the differences can feel quite dramatic.
The most recent available temperature data was provided in the Cape Cod National Seashore's Monitoring Program report to the town for 2025. It reports average water temperatures for each pond over an entire summer season, ranging from 74.5 degrees F to 77.7 degrees. But, this is not truly reflective of the actual conditions. As pond water warms at the surface in spring, it typically becomes stratified so that the water is in thermal layers with a warm layer near the surface and a colder layer below. When the air is calm the layers are maintained, but on windy days, the water mixes a little more, which tends to make the water feel cooler. A day or two of cool rain will also impact the water temperature.
It is very hard to draw useful conclusions from the data. But there are some loose correlations between some pond characteristics and water temperature. For example, the largest and deepest pond, Gull Pond, is reported to have the coolest average temperature. However, all the ponds are bowl shaped and all have areas of shallow water, which are not as cool as the deeper areas. Interestingly, Herring Pond is the shallowest of ponds and one of the smallest, but in 2025 its average summer temperature was a degree or so cooler than all of the other ponds. And in 2025 ponds with big differences in depth and size had the same average water temperature.
In the end, the objective answer to the question “which pond is the coolest” is not so simple and is just not that useful. Instead, the pond one loves the most is most certainly the coolest pond.
For more on pond water temperatures go to the FWP website page:
Tales From a Pond Parking Lot AttendantThe preservation and protection of the ponds depends on the often invisible work of many. One such job is that of the pond parking lot attendant. On July 24, 2026, the FWP newsletter team interviewed Cathy Butler, at Great Pond in Wellfleet. This interview has been lightly edited. How did I choose this line of work? It just fell into my lap. One day, I was talking to somebody who was walking on my circle, and he mentioned that he did this, you know, attendant at a parking lot at the ponds or the beaches. And after I had been retired for 20 years, I decided it would be good to get out and force myself to do something. So, for about three or four years, I've done it five days a week.
Gull Pond Parking Lot Attendant Cathy Butler in her official uniform. What I like best about the job is that I get to get my 10,000 steps a day, and I walk around in circles, and, I think the most I've gotten this year was 14,000 steps, and that was on July 3rd, when it was really busy, and I was moving cause of directing cars all day long. The training for this position is minimal. We're given a radio and if we see somebody without a sticker, we call one of the people in the cars, and they come over, and they double check to make sure there's no sticker. They leave a ticket for the person. The only training is just to know what the stickers look like, the weekly stickers or the season stickers. I enjoy the most talking to the people that I meet in the parking lot. I've made some really good friends. I have people that bring me muffins in the morning, people that make cookies and bring them to me. People come in and tell me what's going on in town. It's a nice way to meet people from Wellfleet, if you're retired and not from Wellfleet originally. What I enjoy least is having people yell at me. I shouldn't even say that, having people yell at me, because 99% of the people that you meet are really friendly and nice. It's just the occasional person that does yell at you. That's the one that you think about when you go home. That's what I least enjoy about the job, is having to deal with people who are angry because they get a ticket because they didn't have a sticker, or they're angry that they got a ticket because they parked in a handicap spot, or that they parked in the fire lane. We have a fire lane, because if there's an emergency, emergency vehicles have to be able to have a place to park. And we did have an almost drowning once, when I was here. And there's a lot of equipment that comes in when there's an emergency. That’s why you get the ticket.
Marching in the Hoppy Inde-pond-dance Day Parade FWP participated in the Wellfleet 4th of July Parade and won first prize in the non-profit float category. Think about joining us next year, the parade is great fun!
On July 20th FWP Board members Gary and Sharon Kreamer spoke at a gathering of the Wellfleet Seasonal Residents Association, sharing both the current status of Wellfleet ponds and FWP’s organizational accomplishments.
Many friends of the Friends of Wellfleet Ponds forwarded to us the recent New York Times story on the Cape Cod pond clean-ups done by The Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, so we are sharing a link to their website. We understand the clean-up crew has determined that the Wellfleet ponds are not currently in need of their assistance.
Upcoming Events of InterestFWP at the Wellfleet Farmers Market Origami experts, Andrea and Cole, admire their origami jumping frogs. Every Wednesday morning, 8am-12pm, through September. FWP Booth at the Wellfleet Farmers Market. Get your origami frog and share your pond stories and concerns.
Wednesday August 19, 7pm FWP Board Members Gary & Sharon Kreamer will be speaking on the Wellfleet Ponds at a Wellfleet Historical Society Program at the Wellfleet Public Library.
Saturday, September 12, 8:30 am 39th Annual Swim4Life, with an option to swim at Wellfleet’s Great Pond. Swim4Life celebrates our community “as one that not only cares about our local health and well-being, but also about Planet Earth, which faces unparalleled environmental challenges.” This year, for the first time, FWP is one of the beneficiaries of S4L and, also for the first time, there is an official FWP team. You can show your support by making a pledge at:
Saturday & Sunday, October 17 and 18 26th Annual Wellfleet Oysterfest Visit the FWP booth as you sample Wellfleet’s world famous oysters and enjoy the festivities.
Need Back to School supplies?
Check out the FWP merch
Send Questions, Suggestions and Comments to info@wellfleetponds.org With your help, we can preserve
and protect our beautiful Wellfleet Ponds. Find FWP on Instagram
or by mail to
Friends of Wellfleet Ponds | PO Box 1113 | South Wellfleet MA 02663 Friends of Wellfleet Ponds is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tax-deductible donations are welcome. |
