Let's restore the lake at Blydenburgh Park

In the wake of the disastrous storm last month that dumped 9 inches of rain on parts of the North Shore and caused a dam to burst that drained the lake at Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown, a growing movement is making the case that the environmentally correct thing to do is forgo dam repairs and let nature take its course. Conservationists and others argue that the now-empty lake should be left to naturally transition back to its original ecosystems.

I respectfully disagree.

There is a human element at play here that cannot and should not be dismissed. I remember discovering the 110-acre Blydenburgh Lake, also known as Stump Pond, when I was in my 20s. I say discovered because suddenly coming upon a massive, beautiful lake in the middle of Long Island — where I had lived my whole life — was astonishing. My friends and I looked at each other. "We’ve been driving up to Harriman State Park and Bear Mountain all this time and this lake is right here? So close?"

For a person who enjoys nature and hiking, it was a game changer. In the decades since, I have returned to Blydenburgh County Park dozens of times, in all seasons, with old friends and new, and not once did the park fail to impress with its miles of wooded trails. But central to every visit and to every element of the park is the beautiful lake. Or at least it was until the Aug. 18 storm and the collapse of the dam on the Nissequogue River that created the lake.

Seeing drone footage of the emptied lake the day following the storm was a shock — one of those sobering moments in life when something you thought was permanent suddenly vanishes. If there was any consolation, it came from Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine during a news conference at Blydenburgh, explaining that the lake dates back to 1798 and declaring, "We will build back. We will recover from the storm."

I hope that commitment does not waver in the face of pressure from some quarters. The argument that there are ecological benefits to letting Mother Nature reclaim what man altered is convincing. I assume it has merit. I am not an environmental scientist. What I do know, however, is that there are equally important benefits to taming nature, if for no other reason than to create or preserve something that brings us pleasure during our time here.

Part of the joy of Blydenburgh County Park was seeing such a cross-section of humanity experiencing the once-magnificent lake. You'd see a father teaching his children how to fish. A young couple laughing in a rowboat. A senior citizen standing alone on the shore admiring the swans, perhaps remembering when she shared the view with someone now gone. All of this and innumerable other individual stories will be lost if the dam is not rebuilt.

Perhaps it’s more sentimental than scientific, but the 226-year-old lake had the power to conjure the past while promising, just based on its sheer size and beauty, that it would remain forever. I am hopeful that this important link between Long Island’s past and future is not broken.

This guest essay reflects the views of Lloyd Singer, a Huntington resident with a lifelong appreciation of the outdoors and Long Island's many parks.