Coastal Salt Pond Assessment

MINK MEADOWS

Mink Meadows is a private golf club and homeowner’s association (HOA) located on Martha’s Vineyard. The development includes a series of interconnected salt ponds and salt marshes connected to Vineyard Sound via a maintained cut through at the barrier beach. Created in the first half of the twentieth century, the ecology, water quality, and boating access to the yacht basin are all dependent on the maintenance of the saltwater exchange through the cut. HW assisted the HOA with a hydrologic and bathymetric study to evaluate the hydrologic and sediment dynamics of the system over the long term. Our staff conducted bathymetric and topographic surveying, and installed water level loggers throughout the system, managed sediment and water quality sampling, and trained the HOA in sampling and monitoring procedures, to continue long-term monitoring over the years. The concept is to better understand how the hydrologic, sediment, and water quality dynamics change both over the long term and seasonally as the ocean cut closes each winter and then is re-opened each summer. With that knowledge, HW can help the HOA best manage the system regarding both ecologic and human interests.