About Winter Pond

Often called Winchester’s hidden treasure, Winter Pond is an important resource for the Town of Winchester (MA), and it supports a rich and diverse community of vegetation, birds, and other wildlife.

Winter Pond is a Great Pond of Massachusetts. Once much larger, it now covers about 18 acres across three basins. Public access is available from Woodside Road, which also divides the pond into separate basins popularly known as Big Winter (to the west, with two basins) and Little Winter (to the east, with a single basin). Big Winter and Little Winter connect through a culvert when the water level is high enough. 

Notably, Winter Pond is a Coastal Plain Pond. It has no inlets or outlets; the water level rises and falls with the water table through the seasons, and, in general, an expanding shoreline appears over the summer, creating a habitat for several unique plants. As such, Winter Pond is also home to the northernmost Coastal Plain Pondshore Community (CPPC) in Massachusetts, and many of FWP’s conservation efforts are carried out under the oversight of the state’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP).

Winter Pond is also a classic kettle pond, created in the Ice Age by retreating glaciers. As indicated above, there are no inlets or streams feeding the pond; its only sources of water are rain, snow, and storm water runoff. As a result, the water level is highly dependent on the weather. In extreme drought years, the water recedes dramatically, sometimes leaving the pond bed nearly dry. In very wet years, the water overflows its traditional shoreline and eventually drains through an outflow pipe to Wedge Pond, another Town pond in Winchester. 

Generally, though, Winter Pond is very shallow. On average, the deepest part of Big Winter is approximately 8 feet; in Little Winter, the greatest depth is just 3-4 feet. The pond receives stormwater drainage from a watershed area that is primarily residential and about 156 acres in size. Like many ponds in urban areas, building and other development in the Winter Pond watershed has affected quality and quantity of stormwater, and, as such, the quality and quantity of the water in Winter Pond.