In August 2024, a major storm took out the Stump Pond Dam at Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown. What happened next surprised a lot of people.
The Nissequogue River — one of Long Island's last free-flowing rivers, and historically one of its most ecologically significant — found its original course. Plants came back. More than 120 species have been documented on the floodplain since the dam failed. Native wildlife returned. The river, essentially, started healing itself.
Now Suffolk County has to decide what to do: spend over $10 million to build a new, larger dam and restore Stump Pond, or let the river run.
It's a genuinely complicated question. The pond was beloved — a destination for fishing, a familiar landmark, a place people have memories tied to. That's real, and the people who want it back aren't wrong to feel the loss. On the other side, dam removal has become a national conservation movement, and the ecological case for a free-flowing Nissequogue is substantial: better habitat for native fish including brook trout and river herring, cleaner water, natural flood resilience, and the kind of riparian landscape Long Island hasn't seen in generations.
The Free the Nissequogue River Coalition is documenting the river's transformation through a community art project called Beauty of Blydenburgh — inviting locals to submit photos, videos, writing, and artwork capturing what the river looks like right now, in this in-between moment before a decision is made.
If you live near the Nissequogue, this one's worth paying attention to. It's a decision that will shape that landscape for the next hundred years.
