South Portland Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department will be removing cattail plants from Mill Creek Pond in November or December 2025.
Cattails are taking over the shoreline of the pond and expanding throughout it, as it is a very shallow man-made pond. It is not fed by any natural water source and does not drain into a natural water source.
Visitors enjoy Mill Creek Park in all seasons, including in the winter for recreation and ice skating. The cattails are reducing the size of the pond allowing a smaller amount of area to skate. If we don't stay ahead of this now for maintenance it will be a lot more costly and time consuming to deal with later when half the pond is covered in cattails.
The other reason for the removal is to reduce breeding and nesting areas for ducks and geese, and hopefully reduce the amount of goose droppings around the park.
The Parks Department will drain the pond a foot or so down as the first step. Crews will then use an excavator to dig up the cattails in the pond and haul it away. Anything crews can't reach with the excavator will pulled or cut by hand.