Old Ladies group is on a mission when it comes to Cape Cod ponds. Here's what to know.

Tired of finding beer cans and other debris in the places she liked to swim, Susan Baur declared war on trash in Cape Cod's ponds.

On that day in 2017, Baur said she "just grabbed two swimmers and a kayaker" on the water and announced "Come on, let's clean up the pond."

In the half-dozen years since, Baur, 85, and a small group of “senior” women swimmers have turned that casual cleanup into a growing Cape phenom, dedicated to both camaraderie and pond conservation. They soon adopted a name for their fledgling group: Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, known for short as OLAUG, and the cheeky moniker has stuck.

The “old ladies” began cleaning up ponds from Brewster to Falmouth, diving to clear the underwater shoreline of litter and trash. Their swims became more visible, generating requests for cleanups at still other ponds.

An author and retired psychologist, Baur of Falmouth, swims several times a week.

All-female crews get the job done

For her work with OLAUG, American Red Cross of Massachusetts will give Baur a climate resiliency hero award at the annual Boston Heroes Breakfast on April 4. The American Red Cross honors local heroes who have shown exceptional humanitarian spirit.

Climate change is a humanitarian crisis due to the frequency of natural disasters.

“The climate crisis is always front of mind with Red Cross,” said Kelly Isenor, Red Cross director of communications.

In August, OLAUG held its first “tryouts” for women who wanted to join the cleanup crew. The requirements?  All are women, ages 64 or older, able to swim a half-mile and complete dives of 8 or 9 feet in depth. Swimmers must be comfortable being in the water for 60 to 90 minutes.

After tryouts, the group quickly tripled, with 21 swimmers now on board.

“We have big plans,” Baur said, of the upcoming season.

The group will split into two teams — “one east of Hyannis, one west of Hyannis,” scheduling visits to close to 20 ponds from July through September, including several around Plymouth.

Early on, Baur said, the group was more casual in its choice of ponds.

“We were learning as we went along,” she said, “more through trial and error.”

During COVID in 2020, cleanups became more focused.

"You’ve got to scout them out,” she said, to pinpoint the places that need the most attention. Now, early in the season, group members, with wetsuits to protect against the cold, make several dives scoping out areas for later visits.

Each “crew” on cleanup consists of two swimmers, paired with a kayaker. Several such crews may head out on a given pond, depending on the job at hand. Each item of trash pulled up is passed to the kayaker, with basket loads returned to shore throughout the day.

'Look at those snappers!'

One swimmer stays ahead in the water, keeping an eye out for the Cape’s fabled snapping turtles (“They are the legends of Cape Cod,” said Baur). A muddy plume can indicate a snapper below — “They kick up an enormous amount of mud.”

“We’ve developed signals” to warn each other of nearby danger, she said.

Besides the ubiquitous golf balls and beer cans, divers have surfaced with everything from car batteries and tires to clothing, shoes, plastic, metal, glass, fishing equipment, dog toys, even, surprisingly, a decorative garden gnome. A good day’s haul can fill total eight or nine large trash bags.

A community event

Baur’s group works with local pond associations for free to facilitate cleanups, which can often turn into a community event, with onlookers watching from shore.

There are only a few requirements: a loan of kayaks for the day, hot drinks at the end of the dive, and ... yes, cookies. “We need cookies,” she said, for both fuel and reward, and neighbors are happy to comply – even, once, with a group baking them in the shape of the pond the group was targeting.

“The interest we generate,” Baur said, can “spur more community involvement and give pond associations a giant boost.” The goal of the cleanups, she said, is to enhance the environmental health of the pond, including its water quality. Interested associations may email the group at olaug.ma@gmail.com.

”It’s an adventure,” Baur said – “and our real product is joy.” Some of that joy, she added, comes from the camaraderie of women doing a difficult thing.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Falmouth swimmer Susan Baur honored for Old Ladies clean pond efforts