About halfway down Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s (CSHL’s) Bungtown Road, right next to the volleyball court, you’ll find a living snapshot of the area’s diverse ecosystem.
It’s called Frog Pond. And while its namesake is often easy to find there, frogs aren’t the pond’s only inhabitants. On any given day, passersby may encounter dragonflies, geese, ducks, turtles, toads, and more. Duckweed and other aquatic plants blanket the pond’s muddy waters. Trees left over from the 1986 construction of Grace Auditorium stand tall near the water’s edge. It might come as a surprise to learn that Frog Pond has another thing in common with the auditorium. Both are man-made.
Before 1988, there was no Frog Pond. That year, CSHL finished a project to restore some of Bungtown Road’s mid-century aesthetic by replacing its telephone poles with underground wiring.
“In the summer of 1948, this then-sylvan path had a rural quality that reflected what Long Island must have been like in the 19th century,” CSHL’s 1988 Annual Report (pdf) states.
Frog Pond’s native species aren’t the only amphibians you’ll find at CSHL. Since 1993, Xenopus, the African clawed frog, has helped countless scientists learn about the origins and mechanics of life through CSHL’s Cell & Developmental Biology of Xenopus: Gene Discovery & Disease Course.
For over three decades, Frog Pond has served as a retention basin to manage stormwater runoff and help prevent flooding. These days, it is also a key source of duckweed for the Martienssen lab’s biofuel research happening across the street. But the pond is still perhaps best known in the CSHL community as a place to relax and catch a glimpse of the frogs and turtles that frequent the area.
CSHL Horticulturist Riley McKenna agrees. “The biggest feature of the pond is its wildlife,” he says. “Most mornings I see some kind of action happening from some kind of bird, groundhog, or turtle.”
Frog Pond is fed from above by a small stream and several lesser ponds before continuing underground into Cold Spring Harbor. The surrounding willow oaks, dogwoods, and winterberry bushes provide shade and a source of food for any animals that may stop by.
“I visit it nearly weekly throughout the year to search for whatever reptiles and amphibians might be hanging out, but also to admire the change in seasons,” says CSHL Professor Zachary Lippman, who took most of the photos in this story. “The arrival of spring especially brings all these great animals out again, and we get to enjoy the pollywogs going from tadpoles to frogs before our eyes.”
For McKenna, the pond and its surroundings also offer a sense of peace and serenity. “A landscape would be nothing without its environment,” he says. “I think that’s what makes the lab, the lab—the environment around us. Long Island is an island like no other.”
American Bullfrogs and Eastern Painted Turtles are commonly spotted at Frog Pond in the spring and summer.
