I went fishing Saturday at Buckmaster Pond and found that "someone" has cut down a large branch from a tree that had been growing there for some years. The tree was not damaged, and the branch had been growing out over the water and providing shelter for fish during the summer months.

Who decides that these trees need to be cut, and exactly what is their criteria for doing these piss-poor pruning jobs in the first place?

It looks like the cities and towns think that fallen trees, branches or even branches hanging over water somehow detract from the artificially inflated appearance of these ponds.
Oddly enough, these same social rejects that feel that a tree that falls in the water is either a pollutant or an eyesore will do absolutely nothing about the garbage that is littering the pond bottom well within their same narrow field of vision.
They will also do nothing to combat the constant weed growth that chokes the waterway and creates a lovely bouquet of rotting plant life in the hot summer months, but they had the presence of mind to cut a branch that hung over the water.

Sure, I may be making a mountain out of a molehill.
Sure, it's only a tree branch.
But keep in mind that this happens with frightening regularity and is never discussed or diclosed. I only knew of it when I saw the after effect.

This same pond is "closed" from dusk to dawn. I guess I should thank the local teens for making that happen (based on police explaination).

It is possible that the branch was cut by a citizen, like yourself, and not the town.

it may have been thought of as a good swing location and hence a liability, so saw it off.

It wasn't just one branch, but a series of branches.
Because of the clustering of lower branches it was useless as a swing, but invaluable as cover for aquatic life.

As for a citizen doing the deed, yeah that was a possibility, but they would have needed a crane and a dump truck to load up all the wood these branches would have created.

It's the same scenario I've seen at Jamaica Pond over the past 20+ years. A tree falls over INTO the water (no swing possibility) and they remove what would have been EXCELLENT cover for the fish.
It seems like the powers that be are more concerned with the facade of a pristine pond than the actual health of the pond.

Jamaica Pond is a prime example of this idiotic process.
The pond "USED" to have a thriving food chain. Healthy aquatic plant life, plenty of forage base fish and plenty of large predators (stocked and naturally reproducing).

Now, catching a large fish is only a possibility if you catch one of the stocked broodstock salmon they throw in there annually.
Catching a 5lb.+ LMB or a 12"+ perch or even just catching a pickerel is a pure fantasy. Sure, they may still exist in this pond, but you would have to spend every day in your attempt to find one of them! With the steady decline of the water quality, unchecked geese population, cornmorant population and human pollution this pond is a sad shadow of its former self.

I speak from experience, having fished there for 30+ years.