The Conservation of Half Moon Pond

I’m sure this story started much earlier but back on March 26th, 2022 a facebook group was formed called ”The Conservation of Half Moon Pond”, which is located in the Town of Brookhaven in Ridge, NY. Looking at it from a satellite image it sits just North of Brookhaven national Laboratory.

Well, that project was started on and continues to be worked on by Allan “AJ” Pearsall who is also a member of Southshore Waterfowler’s. To start with the pond used to have water in it but for the past several years it has been empty, no water. Even though the pond hasn’t had water in it AJ stops by the pond at least once a month to check for water and see if there’s any wildlife activity, maybe a wood duck will take residence into one of the several wood duck boxes on the pond. He also goes through the area and picks up trash, usually a garbage bag per visit.

Well, recently Mother Nature has been “blessing” the area with rain and with that a gradual transformation has taken place at Half Moon Pond. Slowly a dry pond bottom became wet which made the bottom muddy. Then more rain put a few puddles on the ponds bottom. As you can see in the pictures below, it has evolved back into a pond.

Well since the pictures above were taken its gotten even better. It reminds me of the saying in the movie “Field of Dreams, if you build it they will come.” Well if you fill it they will land because that pond has water and it now has ducks.

Well last year, before the pond had all of the wildlife activity in it, AJ was awarded a proclamation by Ed Romaine who at the time was the Town of Brookhaven Supervisor which stated,

”The Town of Brookhaven wishes to honor those individuals who have served the residents of our community with passion and commitment. On April 20, 2023, the Town of Brookhaven will be honoring Allan D. Pearsall for his efforts in cleaning up Half Moon Pond in Ridge; and

Whereas: Allan a resident of Ridge, donates his time to the clean up of Half Moon Pond and tries to make it habitable for local wildlife. He has built birdhouses for the birds and cleans up what people dump there. He has a Facebook page called The Conservation of Half Moon Pond. He does this for the environment on his own time; and

Whereas: Allan has been involved with Ducks Unlimited for 7 years and is the Chairman of the South Bay chapter of Long Island. Allan is an electrician, and has been an active volunteer firefighter for Ridge Fire Department since 2006; and

Whereas: The Town of Brookhaven commends Allan Pearsal on all his conservation work he does and wishes him well in all his future endeavours.

Now,therefore, I Edward P. Romaine, Supervisor of the Town of Brookhaven and the members of the Town Council, on behalf of Brookhaven’s 500,000 residents do hereby take great pride on this 20th day of April 2023 in proclaiming today as Allan Pearsall Day in the Town of Brookhaven.

GREAT JOB AJ, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!