vernal pool restoration

History

The focus of the project is the restoration and interpretation of the Autumn Path’s Vernal Pool and Wetland Garden near the main House, included in Wright’s original landscape design and described in his 1970 manuscript Garden of Woodland Paths:

The path runs through this huge sculpture (a formation of some eighteen feet high granite boulders) and then makes a steep descent, and turns again to reveal another surprise vista: through the trees you see a long horizontal shining streak made by the sun on the Hudson. At your feet and around you is a small sea of viburnum which are many shades of wine red in the fall. Below I have planted a long horizontal drift of deep purple aster and beyond there is a small family of boulders. . . 

At the bottom of the descent, Wright created a vernal pool from a depression left when fill was removed to build the House. He cultivated wetland plantings and ringed the vernal pool with dogwood, a black willow and a scarlet leaved tupelo tree. 

Restoration 2019 and ongoing

A constant course of water runoff over many years from neighboring properties had brought with it invasive non-native plant species such as Ailanthus trees, swallow-wort, barberry and stilt grass. Project tasks completed and ongoing are as follows:

• Mitigation of water flow including placement of logs and branches across the uphill slopes and planting of winterberry, sweet shrub, highbush blueberry, buttonbush, and other wetland tolerant shrubs in groupings across the stream to form natural dams. A matrix of Tussock sedge, Royal Fern and Iris was planted to stabilize sediment flowing into pools. 

• Removal of invasive plants to encourage the re-establishment of native species.

• Installation of a 400 linear foot protective fence to prevent deer browse.

• Planting of over 300 shrubs and 250 ferns and grasses to augment the existing native plant community of the wetland area. 

• An inner path with a curved stepping-stone crossing was re-established.

• Thinning of trees on the ridge to reveal Hudson River views.

Continued restoration of this special landscape feature will offer an unfolding experience of sunset views of the Hudson, layered seasonal foliage, and discovery of the tranquil Vernal Pool and Wetland Garden that also serves as both a unique habitat and incubator for valuable plants and wildlife, especially amphibians and pollinators, and as a stormwater treatment zone.

The Autumn Path is an extension of the Sunset Path that connects to Manitoga’s public trail loop network. The Vernal Pool and Wetland Garden encircled by the Autumn Path are also accessible along a newly constructed ADA trail that departs from the parking court adjacent to the House.

PROJECT TEAM
Project Management – Emily Phillips, Manitoga Landscape Collection & Conservation Manager; Kate Brittenham, Landscape Assistant; Sanjay Thakur, Facility & Grounds Assistant. Special thanks for Manitoga’s landscape volunteer team.

PROJECT SUPPORT
Restoration of the Vernal Pool has been made possible through grants from Open Space Institute’s Malcolm Gordon Fund and New York State’s Zoos, Botanical Gardens & Aquariums Program (ZBGA). Additional funding is provided from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQUIP) of the US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.