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Blydenburgh Park: Rushing into a Mistake (Again)
We must let our waters run free again, for Nature’s sake, and for the sake of Long Island’s future. I am therefore saddened to learn that The Suffolk County Legislature voted 16-0 to fund the rebuilding of the dam at Blydenburgh Park for $6.6 million — saddened but not surprised. When I was Executive Director at Save The Great South Bay, and Hurricane Sandy caused a breach of Fire Island at Old Inlet, there was hardly a politician at the Federal, State, County, or town level who wasn’t calling for it’s immediate closing. The first impulse is inevitably this: Put things back the way they were!
The Breach: When We Let The Waters Run Free
Thankfully, over the weeks and months that followed, the environmental community on Long Island held fast, and guided by science, the breach was allowed to remain open, and the benefits to the bay and to wildlife grew with each tide. One by one, the officials who initially were passionately calling for the breach to be closed, all came around because a small miracle was taking shape before their eyes: Nature had returned. The impulse to put things back the way they were is understandable. A major storm hits. It’s traumatic. We fear what will happen next. After the catastrophic flooding, many were worried the breach would cause yet more.
More recently, a 150 year old dam burst at Westbrook Pond, which is on The Connetquot, in Oakdale just south of the Sunrise Highway. The pond was created as part of the 931 acre Westbrook estate was for Bayard Cutting, the wealthy son of a railroad magnate. The landscape architect was none other than Frederick Law Olmstead, who designed Central Park and other iconic parks nationally. In those days, an artificial pond was an expected accoutrement for an estate.
The reaction then was similar: There was an immediate call was for the dam to be rebuilt. Many recalled with fondness their days swimming and fishing in the pond. So many memories are bound up in a place. However, like so many such artificial ponds or impoundments on Long Island, it’s days as a swimming or fishing hole were long past. Again, our first reactions are driven by sentiment.
When We Don’t Let The Waters Run Free: Dead Ponds and Bays
The issue at Westbrook Pond, like so many LI ponds, however, is sediment, or to use a fancy word, eutrophication. Over the 130+ years, the pond had filled with muck and was choked with invasive plants. The rotting black muck heated up the water, which then in turn flowed over the spillway and into The Connetquot, degrading water quality for the river and The Great South Bay alike.
What was revealed when the pond drained was spectacular. There was the old river bed, a fork of The Connetquot. Dotted along it’s meandering banks were the ancient stumps of the now globally rare Atlantic White Cedar. They were taken down with the damming of the river. They made for excellent timber for ship building. They don’t rot, hence all the stumps. For centuries, Long Island was known for ship building and for fishing, so that today the tree is a rare find on our crowded island.
Helping Our Waters Run Free: Local Stewardship
Seatuck Environmental Association stepped up to steward the return of West Brook, working with LIISMA (The Long Island Invasive Species Management Area) to battle the incursion of invasive phragmites while documenting the return of a number of native plant and animal species. A 19 acre meadow that has since emerged along West Brook’s banks has since become one of the more active destinations for birders on Long Island. As you drive east on the Sunrise just before Exit 46, take a look south for a glimpse. The transformation has been remarkable.
With the collapse of the dam, here was one of the few places on Long Island where fish have an unimpeded access to their ancient spawning grounds. Eels, brook trout, alewife could now make their way inland. Centuries of damming all across Long Island has led, not coincidently, to a collapse of various fish populations. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to wait for an Act of God to reconnect our rivers to the sea, but actively sought to heal nature, as is being done increasingly in many states across the country?
Let The Waters Run Free, As They Did For Eons
As it was with the breach, there are still calls to dam it up again because it was there before, despite the obvious environmental benefits of letting the waters flow free again. It’s a conservative impulse. Don’t change things. I consider myself though to be a paleoconservative: Put things back the way they were in pre-history, before Columbus, before robber baron estates, before Levittown and the LIE.
When We Don’t Let Waters Run Free: Pre-Industrial “Infrastructure”
What happened at Blydenburgh is quite analogous to the situation at Westbrook: A dam built well over a hundred years ago burst during a torrential downpour and the pond quickly emptied, revealing a section of river beneath. In this case, the river in question is the Nissequogue. The pond, labeled “Stump Pond,” are the remains of a American Cedar Swamp forest. This pond was created to run a timber mill. Pre-industrial infrastructure. Every “Mill Pond” on Long Island was created for this same purpose as the name implies, and they are all in the process of dying, filling with muck, choked with invasive plants and covered in algae.
Once again we see the same reaction we saw with the breach and with West Brook: Put things back the way they were. Why? We all have our memories. We need to preserve the past. I would submit that nostalgia leads to bad science. Why repeat past errors when we can make things better? In other words, don’t do something, stand there!
Let’s welcome Nature back to Long Island after so many decades. Think of all the gorgeous habitat that would reemerge as it has at West Brook. How many more native birds, driven practically to extinction locally, could find homes along “Blydenburgh Meadows”? Would it not be preferable for those visiting Blydenburgh Park if people could meander in an extended meadow, along a boardwalk, say, instead of merely overlooking a reconstructed impoundment? Long Islanders would be able to encounter nature as it was centuries ago.
Let’s imagine what Blydenburgh could be. We don’t have to look further than Westbrook as a model. Despite all the naysaying, the river has reestablished itself along with the surrounding meadow, and spectacularly so. Turning to Blydenburgh, we’d be looking at an enormous nature preserve as The Nissaquogue reclaims it’s ancient course.
West Brook is but 19 acres. “Stump Pond,” as it reverted to river and meadow, would be substantially larger, a true jewel right in the center of Long Island. Instead of spending $6.6 million to put back what shouldn’t be there, we could invest in assisting the return of Nature. This would also be a destination for fishermen and birders, and would increase the overall value of the surrounding land.
The plan to rebuild, we are told, would include fish ladders, but really how effective are they? Such ladders are grossly insufficient for aquatic wildlife, and fail to address the importance of restoring flow as a means to improve water quality, both in our rivers, and in our failing bays.
Rebuilding the dams every time one eventually gives way is neither sound economic or environmental policy. In an age of wholesale extinction, globally and locally, we should be doing everything we can to rebuild precious habitat on this crowded island. As we are hit with ever more violent storms, with heavier rains, we need to find the means to manage the increase in stormwater runoff.
Let The Waters Run Free. Water Must Have A Place to Go!
West Brook, Blydenburgh, and indeed Avalon where an ancient dam burst the same night as Blydenburgh, all demonstrate the dangers of inland flooding, what happens when the water has no place to go. Wouldn’t it be better if we had meadows surrounding our rivers rather than an artificial pond so that flood waters could be readily absorbed rather than overtopping and pulling down our dams?
Please read these excellent articles from Seatuck on Blydenburgh Seatuck Environmental Association has spoken out forcefully in favor of having Stump Pond revert to the river it was and on the larger issue of our policy (or lack thereof) towards impoundments. Here, John Turner has penned an eloquent and informed essay advocating for science and nature.
Let The Waters Run Free — And Begin To Heal Our Bays!
With all the talk of our dying bays and the importance of water quality here on Long Island, it is very troubling that when presented with an opportunity, we are choosing to abuse Nature once more by rebuilding the dam. We are obsessed with sewering, with septic tank replacement, and plan to spend billions to address this issue. But who is even talking about the hundreds of dying lakes and ponds, and all the two thousand fetid sumps that dot the island?
It’s time we reckon with this crucial aspect of our water quality problem. Virtually every creek and river on Long Island has been dammed or culverted over the centuries, severing our island from the surrounding water, with devastating consequences. It doesn’t have to be this way, and shouldn’t if Long Island chooses to embrace best practices.
Let Our Waters Run Free Again — As So Many Other States Are Doing
New York and Long Island need to take a good hard look at what is happening nationally. Increasingly, states are seeing the wisdom of dam removal. Connecticut has removed 24 dams since 2014, creating 427 miles of habitat and restoring ancient fish runs. Massachusetts has removed 40 dams since 2005, removing 17th Century “infrastructure” and restoring Nature. Another 7 are slated for removal starting in 2024. In Maine, a number of dams have been removed, headlined by The Penobscot and the Kennebec. In each case, Nature came roaring back as the rivers were reconnected to the sea.
With all the talk of our dying bays and the importance of water quality here on Long Island, it is very troubling that when presented with an opportunity, we are choosing to abuse Nature once more by rebuilding the dam. We are obsessed with sewering, with septic tank replacement, and plan to spend billions to address this issue.
But who is even talking about the hundreds of dying lakes and ponds, and all the two thousand fetid sumps that dot the island? It’s time we reckon with this part of our water quality problem. Virtually every creek and river on Long Island has been dammed or culverted over the centuries, severing our island from the surrounding water, with devastating consequences. It doesn’t have to be this way, and shouldn’t if Long Island decides to embran
I will note that even as I write this, the steelhead salmon are making their way up the Klamath River in Oregon, hundreds of miles inland. For almost a century, four dams had blocked their path. The fish ladders provided little passage. The stagnant water, overheated and choked with algae blooms, triggered regular fish die offs. These four dams came down because of local action, because the Native American tribes, the ranchers and farmers, the hydroelectric dam operators, and the U.S. government all came together to make this happen after over fifteen years of effort.
Revitalizing the Klamath constitutes the largest environmental restoration project in U.S. History. I helped to produce and screen A River Between Us, a documentary that finally triggered action to restore this river, and from there the largest environmental restoration project in US history. If we give Nature a chance, we will be vastly rewarded for the effort.
I implore then Long Islanders, our elected officials and ultimately The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation: Let’s make some history of our own here on Long Island. Let’s not repeat history by rebuilding a relic from another era. Let’s follow Nature and Science, and build a more sustainable future for Long Island.