Long Pond Park is one of the lesser-known parks on Staten Island in Richmond Valley. You can probably get away with saying that it is hidden in plain sight. Long Pond Park is quite large, being about one hundred acres in size, but since this long_pond_2_400undeveloped land does not have any arresting entrances, most people do not even know it's designated as parkland.  It has in fact been in possession of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation since the beginning of the twenty-first century. For the most part, Long Pond Park is bounded by the streets of Amboy Road to the north, Hylan Boulevard to the south, Page Avenue to the west, and Richard Avenue to the east. However, there a number of streets interspersed along Page Avenue, which basically jut into the park.

The entirety of Long Pond Park has been designated as a Forever Wild Nature Preserve by the Natural Resources Group, who conserves fifty-one of these sites in New York City-twenty-four of which are located on Staten Island. The purpose of the Forever Wild designation is to protect rare and endangered organisms within an ecoslong_pond_3_400ystem. In Long Pond Park, you will find many different habitats, including forested areas, grasslands, and wetlands. Between August and October, you will actually see a number of migratory birds visiting the park. In addition to these, there are some yearly creatures who inhabit the park.

Within Long Pond Park, you will find the 1 ½ mile trail known as Long Pond Trail. The trail begins by Richard Avenue and Hylan Boulevard. As you begin hiking along the trail, you will pass two ponds: Buegler Pond and Camden Pond. Past these ponds, you will reach Pam's Pond, followed by Pratt's Pond. Finally, you will reach Long Pond, which is quite a long pond, indeed, taking up roughly five acres. Along this same trail, long_pond_4_400you will also pass by two swamps: Cleaves Swamp and Thoreau Swamp. In addition to these ponds and swamps, there are several smaller bodies of water throughout the park, such as the small kettle ponds past Pam's Pond.

Along Long Pond Trail and within the rest of the park, you can find a wide variety of plant life inhabiting Long Pond Park. The ferns, herbs, shrubs, trees, vines, are a great sight for nature enthusiasts and plain visitors alike. The ferns located within the park include the bracken fern, the hay-scented fern, and the interrupted fern.  There are a great number of herbs, as well, including the Asiatic dayflower, the bastard toadflax, dogbane, garlic mustard, orange jewelweed, trumpetweed, and white wood aster. Some of the shrubs you can find include the arrowwood viburnum shrub, the black raspberry shrub, the highland and lowbush blueberry shrubs, the maple-leaf viburnum shrub, and the winged sumac shrub. Some of the more prominent trees in the park include black locust trees, mockernut trees, red oak trees, silk trees, slong_pond_1_400weetgum trees, and tulip trees. These are only a few of the different types of trees found within the park, though. There are a few lovely types of vines within Long Pond Park, including the Asiatic bittersweet, the bittersweet nightshade, and the wisteria.  Not surprisingly, there are a few different types of grass within Long Pond Park, as well.  The types of grass include deer tongue grass, purple top grass, and switchgrass. 

Posted by Anthony Licciardello on

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