Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve is state park of the U.S. state of New York, located near the southwestern shore of Staten Island. It is the only state park located on Staten Island.
The park is a 260-acre (1.1 km2) nature preserve, comprising wetlands, ponds, sand barrens, spring-fed streams, and woodlands. It includes pitch pine woods, and rare wildflowers such as cranberry, lizard-tail, possumhaw, and bog twayblade. The animal species found in the park include northern black racer snakes, box turtles, Fowler's toads, green frogs, and spring peepers. More than 170 bird species have been sighted in the park. Deer are also regularly seen there.
The park was created in 1976 after extensive lobbying by the Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, a local conservation organization. The purpose of the preserve is to retain the unique ecology, as well as to provide educational and recreational opportunities, such a nature walks, pond ecology programs, and birdwatching. Horseback riding is permitted on 5 mi (8 km) of bridle paths. The park has two designated areas which are set aside for endangered species and which are off-limits to the public. Two hiking trails, the Abraham's Pond Trail, and the Ellis Swamp Trail, are open to the public near the park headquarters.
The park was the site of extensive mining of white kaolin clay in the 19th century that provided the raw material for bricks and terra cotta. After the abandonment of the quarrying operations, rainwater, natural springs, and vegetation filled in the pits. The preserve also contains archaeological evidence of settlements of the Lenape, early European settlers, and the Free Blacks of Sandy Ground.
In October 2008, an interpretive center opened on Nielsen Avenue with exhibits on the history of the Charleston area and wildlife and plants found within the park. The groundbreaking for the $1.3 million nature center was held on May 4, 2007. The 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) facility contains exhibit space, classrooms, and an outdoor pavilion.
Famous quotes containing the words clay, pit, ponds, state, park and/or preserve:
“The earth is covered thick with other clay,
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red
burial blent!”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset. Let us deny our adversaries the satisfaction of using Vietnam to pit Americans against Americans.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“An orchard, good tillage, good grounds, seem a fixture, like a gold mine, or a river, to a citizen; but to a large farmer, not much more fixed than the state of the crop.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)