The beaches at Walden Pond are mostly underwater

Much of the beach area at Walden Pond in Concord will be underwater until at least the fall after last year’s heavy rains, according to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

In a video shared online by the DCR, Visitor Services Supervisor Kyle Griffiths said 60 inches of rain dropped into Walden Pond last year, compared to the usual 50 inches of rain the area typically gets. 

“Over the winter, all that water seeped into the pond into its lowest points. By April, the beach was pretty much gone,” said Griffiths. “This summer, there’s not going to be much of a beach here at Walden Pond because of the rain we got last year.”

Griffiths said Walden is a kettle pond dug up by a receding glacier during the last ice age. As a result, there is no outlet to any other bodies of water, and the pond is the lowest point in the surrounding area.

“No, seriously, this is all the beach there’s going to be this summer, said DCR Digital Strategist Ryan Hutton. “The only way for water to vanish is evaporation, and that takes a while.” 

The DCR video showed a pondside bench that was completely submerged underwater. 

The DCR is asking visitors to explore other state parks and beaches this summer, instead of Walden Pond. But those who have ventured to the pond despite the lack of shoreline have trampled plants and habitat in their search for places to sit. Such activity damages the pond’s ecology, said Griffiths. Hutton said people are also cutting the fencing the DCR installed to protect the water’s edge.

Kathi Anderson, executive director of The Walden Woods Project, told The Boston Globe that the pond had a similar problem in 2010. Due to unusually high water levels that summer, the pond was closed to the public for several weeks.

Anderson told the outlet she fears the issue will continue in the future. Experts predict that heavy rains will become more frequent due to climate change.