Carol Haskins stops along the trail to explain how you can tell the difference between a red maple and a white maple. Half a dozen people trail along behind her to get an early look at a piece of woods that will be open to all this fall or next year.

The Portland Water District owns 123 acres around Chaffin Pond in Windham, just north of Route 302. In the 1930s, Windham grew and residents demanded running water. Authorities decided to dig wells around Chaffin Pond property rather than take lake water, in part because the residents wanted to keep swimming in the lake. For many years most of Windham’s water came from two wells on the Chaffin Pond property. In the 1990s, after a leak from a gas station on nearby Route 302, tests showed the gasoline additive MTBE in the water. Now Windham residents get their water from Sebago Lake, like most of the rest of the Portland Water District.

Haskins, an environmental educator with the Portland Water District(PWD), says that the MTBE contamination never exceeded federal guidelines for safety, but the PWD shut down the wells anyway.

Now the 123-acre site is home to frogs, birds, black flies and other wildlife. Some neighbors ride their all-terrain vehicles on the paths that circle the pond, and some folks already occasionally take a stroll through the woods.

As part of an ongoing effort to make more of its property available for recreation, Portland Water District has teamed with the town of Windham to open up Chaffin Pond for recreation. Among the hikers on this partly sunny Wednesday is Brian Ross of the Windham Parks and Recreation Department, who says it should be open either this fall or next spring.

Some improvements will be required. Ross says the town is building a parking lot on the main road, Route 302, and erecting a new gate to keep cars out of the dirt road to the pond. That road will be limited to pedestrians only. No motor vehicles at all will be allowed in the property, including the ATVs and snowmobiles that sometimes use it today. Hunting will also be banned. During our walk through the woods we come across the remains of at least one old hunting stand.

Fishing will be allowed. Plans call for a new pier to be constructed for that purpose. Officials are discussing stocking the pond with fish.

Sarah Plummer of the PWD describes the 123 acres as, “A jewel in the impervious rough.” With the rapid pace of development in Windham, this wild area becomes more important to wildlife and animals. She says a survey of the property identified, “Many different habitats for a site this size,” including oak- pine forest, red maple swamp, bogs, marsh and of course, the pond itself. Chaffin Pond is only about 40 feet deep, which Plummer says makes it a warm water pond.

This summer, the Maine Conservation Corps will be working in the area to cut a new path through the woods. The new path route has been marked by orange ribbons. They’ll also build some bridges and boardwalks to allow access through some boggy areas and over inlet and outlet streams that were running pretty high on the day we visited. An attempt to ford one inlet stream resulted in some chilly feet, and the water was running too fast and deep for the rest of our small group to attempt the crossing. When all the work is done the trail should circle behind the pond making for a nice mile and a half walk through the woods, with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the Maine woods.