Ponky Golf Course project ignites dispute over wetlands

The soggy third fairway on Course 1 at Ponkapoag Golf Course has been closed since the 1990s. (Tom Palmer photo)

Thanks to a multi-million-dollar investment from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, Canton’s beloved and historic Ponkapoag Golf Course is bracing for a comeback — although not everyone is thrilled with the DCR’s approach to the restoration project.

Last week, Tom Palmer, a wetlands consultant and a resident of Milton, filed a suit in Norfolk Superior Court requesting a preliminary injunction to stop what he described as the “wholesale filling of wetlands” currently occurring on six closed fairways on Ponkapoag’s Course One, which is situated on the southern end of the property behind Blue Hills Regional Technical School.

Those holes, along with three others, have been closed since the early 1990s primarily due to flooding concerns, but the DCR is hoping that a series of drainage improvements will help get them back up and running, thus restoring the course — designed by famed golf architect Donald Ross — to its previous 36-hole configuration.

Palmer, however, has offered evidence that the fairways in question were actually not designed by Ross. Furthermore, he contends that the disputed fairways are in fact supposed to be wet — because they were “built in a bog and sank back into it.”

“The soggy closed fairways lie in a former 40-acre, wooded swamp between the high ground along Route 138 and Massasoit Community College,” he explained. “They were built in muck soils over a corduroy of felled trees.”

Palmer’s lawsuit, which had the backing of 18 other concerned citizens but was ultimately dismissed by Judge Angel Kelley-Brown due to jurisdictional issues, had sought to halt all filling activities until the group’s appeal of a state environmental permit was resolved.

The state is set to hear that appeal sometime next month; however, with the DCR having already completed approximately 50 percent of the filling, Palmer said the damage would likely have already been done by then.

“DCR wants to make sure that if its permit crashes, the wetlands are already filled,” he said. “But the filling is burying all the plant and animal life in the wetlands. Those communities cannot be restored intact.”

Palmer said the state Department of Environmental Protection, in pushing the restoration project through, managed to completely sidestep two important wetland protection measures — exempting it from the Wetlands Protection Act altogether while also waiving a federally mandated water quality certification.

Palmer said such actions are unheard of, especially for a project of this magnitude, which consists of more than 17 acres of federally mapped wetlands — all within the boundaries of the Fowl Meadow/Ponkapoag Bog Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).

“It’s not impossible to fill wetlands legally,” Palmer said. “But it rarely happens, in part because of steep compensatory requirements — you have to make as many wetlands as you fill. All that went out the window for this project.”

He added that the ACEC designation “requires the highest standards of environmental review, and yet here we have an agency with conservation in its name (DCR) doing the biggest wetlands fill I’ve ever seen.”

Reached last week, DCR spokesman Bill Hickey said the agency would not comment on the injunction request or the pending appeal; however, he did say that the $2.7 million restoration project had been thoroughly vetted by several governmental bodies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the DEP, and the Canton Conservation Commission. Furthermore, in its environmental impact report submitted to the secretary of energy and environmental affairs, the DCR concluded that inadequate stormwater management on nearby properties along Randolph Street was “one of the main reasons for the flooding of the fairways on Course One.”

“The actual wetlands is the area around the back nine of the golf course,” stated Hickey in a voicemail left with the Citizen. “Obviously, it’s had some flooding issues over the past few years and flooding concerns, and we want to use the fill so that we can restore those holes and restore the course.”

Hickey also referenced the “historic design” of the fairways, which were added in the late 1930s a few years after the original 18 were constructed. (An additional nine holes were added in the 1950s on the northerly side near Route 128.)

The DCR frequently promotes the course as a “Donald Ross design.” However, Palmer said there is “considerable evidence,” including a recent comprehensive study by Ross scholar Bradley S. Klein, suggesting that Ross only designed the original 18 holes, which comprises holes from both present-day Course One and Course Two.

But whether Ross did have anything to do with the late 1930s holes or not, Palmer and his supporters are not quite sure that restoring them would be the best course of action.

“I agree that the golf course is an extremely valuable public amenity,” said Palmer. “There are loads of people who enjoy it, and there’s no question it deserves support, but if they need to rehabilitate it and want to get back to 36 holes, why not look at ways to do it without filling all of these wetlands?”

“The reason they had to close these holes is because of the mistake they made in building them in a peat bog to begin with,” he added. “So why repeat that mistake?”

Palmer suggested that the DCR consider relocating the new holes on the recently remediated Indian Line Farm property, or perhaps reconfigure the existing design.

At this point, however, all he can conclude is that “there’s a tremendous amount of political pressure” being placed on this restoration project. And it makes sense, he said, given the state’s past attempts to privatize the course and leverage its historical significance to perhaps attract a major pro golf event in the future.

As for his upcoming appeal, Palmer acknowledged that he and his supporters are “David” while the state is “Goliath” — and Goliath usually wins. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel good about doing it, and it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing,” he said.

“We want the DCR to manage this golf course in an environmentally responsible way,” said Palmer. “That’s what it comes down to, and that is not what’s happening here.”

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