One of the most beloved and iconic vistas of the 8,000-acre Mohonk Preserve, Duck Pond, is slated to be drained and dismantled this spring. The pond is cradled between the foothills and the ridgeline of the Shawangunks, with a direct view of Sky Top Tower: the 100-year-old stone edifice that is perched on top of the mountain. The pond often reflects the silhouettes of trees skirted around its belly, the movement of clouds skating across the sky and the curvature of its silken surface, created by the waterfowl that flock to its modest shore.
Back in 2018, Duck Pond’s then-110-year-old drainage system designed to manage the pond’s water levels failed. The Preserve drained the pond and uncovered various structural issues. At that time, Preserve spokespersons stated that they would engage engineers to rehabilitate the ailing dam. When rainfall is high, the pond fills up and the structural issues of the century-old dam can go without notice. But when rainfall is low, the pond shrinks to the size of a puddle, the large, old snapping turtles looking like stranded sea creatures out on mud bars.
According to Gretchen Reed, director of marketing and communications for the not-for-profit Preserve, “Dams are regulated in New York by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)’s Division of Dam Safety, which sets the standards for their construction and operation.” To that end, she said that the Preserve has been “engaging with DEC, along with professional conservation and engineering firms, to assess the dam and develop a remediation plan.”
The conclusion? To remove the dam and let the water flow. “After an extensive review, the engineers concluded that the existing dam could not be repaired to meet current dam safety standards,” she said, adding that the only alternatives were construction of a significantly larger dam or removal of the existing dam “and restoration of the Kleine Kill stream.” Constructing a new dam would be costly and, according to Reed, require clearcutting of trees and “installation of large riprap walls.”
Reed said that the options were vetted through Preserve staff, volunteer committee members and the Board of Directors. Hudson Valley One asked the Preserve administration if there had been any public outreach or public comment/information sessions from Preserve members, but did not receive a response to that question by presstime. Reed did say that deliberations included input from the Preserve’s conservation team, “which focused on potential habitat and species impacts,” as well as the land stewardship team, which focused on carriage roads and other infrastructure impacts. “At the end of 2022, after multiple years of research, the decision was made to proceed with the dam removal and restoration of the stream corridor, including an upland wet meadow habitat,” she concluded.
Interim siphon system
This past week, two large PVC pipes were inserted into the pond and through the old stone-and-mortar dam. According to the Preserve, the recent lack of rainfall naturally lowered the depth of the pond, which offered them “another opportunity to examine its failing infrastructure. This revealed that the dam was further degrading and, due to the low water levels, the 116-year-old drainage system had become blocked.”
Based on this deterioration, Reed said that the Preserve was granted an emergency authorization by DEC to install an interim siphon system to control the pond’s water levels. “This system will ensure that the water level will remain stable and reduce the hydrostatic pressure on the dam.”
What’s at stake?
While a popular destination for humans, the pond is also a virtual paradise for pond- and swamp-loving creatures of all varieties. Although the pond was created in 1908 by the construction of the existing dam, it has become home to an abundance of wildlife over the past 124 years that thrive in its wetland habitat. In an article written in the New Paltz Times in 2007, Paul Huth, then-director of the Daniel Smiley Research Center at the Preserve, said that the pond is home to snapping turtles, painted turtles, schools of golden shiners, Northern water snakes, black rat snakes, red-spotted newts, green frogs, bullfrogs and Northern spring peepers. Huth added that there were several species of mollusks, including the “large Chinese mystery snail, which inhabit the muddy bottom,” as well as a large array of invertebrates including dragonflies and damselflies.
Where does all of this wildlife go when the dam is destroyed? Reed said that the Preserve is “keenly aware of the wildlife at Duck Pond, and our conservation team has been carefully monitoring them during the dam fluctuations,” noting that “The good news is that the resident species, such as the turtles, are resilient and will be able to adapt or relocate to other areas.”
With the exception of Lake Mohonk (which is off-limits except for Mohonk Mountain House hotel and spa guests) and Split Rock (a small waterfall and bathing area on the Coxing Kill, off Clove Road), Duck Pond is the only substantial body of water within the entire Preserve. Like wildlife, people are drawn towards water, and there is constant and often daily pilgrimage by locals to Duck Pond from the trails and carriageways that lead from the Testimonial Gatehouse or Pine Road.
There are those who travel by foot, by bike, by horse, with friends or family or on a solo trek to soak in the sounds and smells and colors of the mercurial pond as the wind combs through it. Since the 1970s, Duck Pond has been used as an outdoor environmental education classroom for area schoolchildren. It is a place that offers respite and beauty, examination and wonder. While a reprieve from the noise of modern life, the pond is never silent. There is a constant cacophony of peeping, croaking, chirping, splashing, slithering and hooting. It’s a place that also displays a wild palette of color, from the beige of cattails to the flaming crimson and alluring gold of maples and oak trees in the height of autumn. It’s a place that allows those who live near or frequent the Preserve to feel that they are home.
Reed said that the Preserve “certainly recognizes that Duck Pond is a much-loved site for members, visitors and staff. Unfortunately, the extensive negative environmental impact of constructing a dam that would meet current standards would be significant, and the resulting site would be nothing like the current Duck Pond.” She added that, as a conservation-based organization, “We are confident that restoration of the Kleine Kill is the best environmental option. In an era of climate change, water needs to be given space to flow freely and drain naturally for streams to be as healthy and resilient as possible.”
Landscape changes
There are no known images of the landscape prior to the construction of the dam. So, it’s hard to imagine what it could look like without Duck Pond. Reed said that the professional conservation and engineering firms’ work includes identifying the original path of the Kleine Kill as part of the stream restoration project. Kleine is German for “little,” and Kill refers to the stream that empties into the Pond. Below the Pond, the stream meanders to the Humpo Marsh: wetlands on either side of Route 299 in the dip below the intersection of Butterville and Albany Post Road and just before Jenkins-Lueken Orchards.
According to Reed, the next steps in what they’re calling the “Kleine Kill restoration project” include supporting native revegetation by monitoring flora and fauna and invasive plant management, while maintaining low water levels to support the existing wildlife. Reed said that the Preserve will work with its engineering team to complete designs to develop an upland wet meadow and free-flowing stream, reconfigure the surrounding carriage road access and develop educational programmatic sites. The work will be “ongoing,” as the Preserve will need to “secure funding for engineering designs to reconnect the historic Kleine Kill stream and support the ecological restoration of the surrounding landscape.”
History of Duck Pond
The Albert K. Smiley Memorial Tower on Sky Top, Duck Pond and the Testimonial Gatehouse are all iconic landmarks for those who live near and frequent the Preserve. There’s one wooden bench that frames the pond like a postcard, and its easy to see why the Smileys decided to dam the Kleine Kill stream and create this majestic pocket in 1908. Huth said in a 2018 article in Hudson Valley One that the Smileys proudly brought guests by horse and carriage through the Testimonial Gatehouse, along the Pin Oak Allée, up to the vista of Duck Pond, which was designed and built to provide an aesthetic experience heightening the effect of the landscape and guests’ anticipation of what they had in store for their visit as they made their way to the hotel.
The property that is now Duck Pond was purchased by the Smiley family in the 1880s and was known as the Kleine Kill Meadow. According to Huth, it was purchased in two separate transactions: one parcel from Catherine Hand in 1884 and the other from William and Eliza Pine in 1885. In the New Paltz Times article from 2007, Huth said that the Pond was intended to be named Kleine Kill Lake, but the workers dubbed it Duck Pond because of all the waterfowl, and the name “just stuck.”
And while it was created for aesthetic reasons, Duck Pond had secondary, practical purposes as well. Ice was harvested there for both the hotel and the dairy at Kleine Kill Farm. And it would eventually be used as breeding grounds for bass and rainbow trout to be transferred to Lake Mohonk for the pleasure of resort visitors. The purpose of the (now-cracked) drainage pipes in Duck Pond was to allow the water level to be raised or lowered, at which point fish could be taken out with nets and transported to the lake.
“Right after the Smileys purchased the place, they started stocking Lake Mohonk with bass and rainbow trout for guests,” Huth said in the 2018 article in Hudson Valley One. “But it was expensive to transport fish from the hatchery in Rochester: They had to be shipped down in big wooden vats on train cars, and trout are sensitive to water temperature; they had to stop along the way for oxygenated water.”
The Smileys decided to raise fish on the property instead, putting small fingerlings in the gravel-bottomed Duck Pond, where the trout could reproduce on their own. “When the fish got to be about 10 to 12 inches, or the size they wanted, they’d lower the water level using the drainage pipes, then net and catch the fish and take them over to the lake for guests.” This was done on a regular basis from the ‘20s to about 1940, Huth said in the article, after which it became more economical to transport fish from hatcheries by truck and the practice of raising fish in Duck Pond was stopped.
By 1935, the approach to the resort through the Testimonial Gateway was no longer in use. Duck Pond continued to be utilized as a destination spot for hikers, horseback riders, runners, birders and naturalists, however.
In December of 1967, Duck Pond, as part of the 687-acre Oakwood parcel, was transferred from the Smileys to the Mohonk Trust, which would become the Mohonk Preserve in 1978. During that period there was a small summer weekend campground established next to the Pond, with tent platforms and a ranger and naturalist on site. Since its inception it has always been a research destination for children, adults, birdwatchers, volunteers and environmental biologists.
Daniel Smiley and his brother Keith Smiley conducted the first Breeding Bird Census in June of 1927 at Duck Pond, recording 18 species of birds. “This census is continued today, with the Duck Pond watershed being a destination every five years by research volunteers,” said Huth in the 2007 article. The dragonflies and damselflies were surveyed in 2007 by the research staff at the Daniel Smiley Center as part of a statewide atlas project, as well as ongoing limnological (inland aquatic ecosystem) studies.
The site continues to serve as a focal point for hikes, horseback riding, cycling, birding and environmental research and education, as well as habitat to a wide variety of wildlife, flora and fauna.
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