On the southern edge of Little Pond, a popular trout and bass fishery off Biscay Road in Damariscotta, dozens of canoes have been stored just off the pond for decades.
The canoes, and part of the access path to the pond, are on Perry Waltz’s property. Waltz is now selling the property, and for several weeks there have been signs up requesting that all the canoes be removed by Aug. 15.
“Personally, I didn’t have any objections to the canoes being there,” Waltz said. “I’m a fisherman myself.”
On the recommendation of his real estate agent, Waltz does not want the canoes on the land when he puts it on the market.
On July 28, there were about 30 canoes still on the property. If the canoes are not removed by their owners, Waltz will remove the canoes “with the permission of the Damariscotta Police Department,” according to the signs.
“Maybe I’ll have a canoe sale,” Waltz said.
With the change of ownership, some fishermen are concerned that they may lose access to Little Pond entirely.
The only public path to Little Pond starts on Biscay Road on Sanitary District land and runs onto Waltz’s property before reaching the pond, said Scott Abbotoni, Water Division Manager for the Sanitary District.
It will be up to the new landowner whether to continue allowing public access on that path.
The Great Salt Bay Sanitary District owns most of the land around Little Pond, which provides the town water supply for Damariscotta. There are two private parcels with frontage on Little Pond including the Waltz property.
All of the Sanitary District land except the road to the pump house and the land immediately surrounding the pump house is open for public access.
If the new landowner chooses to post the property with the current path, the question is whether a new path can be created on Sanitary District land to facilitate public access.
“That will be up to the [Sanitary District Board of] Trustees,” Abbotoni said.
If the trustees are interested in creating a public path, it will need to be shown that there would be no impact on water quality from erosion or other sources, Abbotoni said.
Right now, the Sanitary District is not required to filter the water from Little Pond because it’s so clean.
“If we lose our filtration waiver, that’s a huge expense,” Abbotoni said.
The trustees have been trying to purchase the land directly along the shore of the pond from Waltz for years, said Allan Ray, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. If that strip of land can be split off from the rest of the property, the trustees will buy it, Ray said.
If the Sanitary District buys the land, fishermen will be allowed to continue storing their canoes there, Ray said.
Whether a path can be created or the Sanitary District buys the land, anyone willing to hike through the woods will still have access to Little Pond, according to Maine state law.
“If there is unimproved land around the pond that’s not posted, you have public access to the pond,” said Ralph Brissett at the information center for Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. That is true even if the land is private, Brissett said.
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife encourages all hunters and fishermen to ask permission from landowners before using un-posted private property. Permission was somewhat less important to Waltz when he owned the property, because he didn’t mind people hunting and fishing.
However, “only one person ever asked me permission to put their canoe there,” Waltz said.
