Demise Of The Duck Pond

A reader recently sent a note: “Did you know that the duck pond at Montgomery College has already had the ducks and geese eliminated and the frogs,fish,turtles, etc. are next? Life in and at the pond will be gone. So many years that pond has given us so much, it is hard to watch its life disappear. . . . [W]hy drive away or kill the creatures living there? It has always been a place for photos and summer strolls and conversations. Even a blue heron stopped there. Seems a shame to end it. True, a new science building is good but I believe the pond should remain.”

This reader is not alone, as our friends at the Gazette point out this week:

Montgomery College’s decision to drain a storm-water management pond for a construction project without removing the fish and wildlife that inhabited it has angered many students and faculty on the Rockville campus.

“It’s disgusting,” said Evin Eldridge, 20, who is to graduate from Montgomery College in the fall. “The most ironic thing is this is going to be a biology center.”

A new, roughly $60 million science center is being built on the Rockville campus. The planned four-story building will house the biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and geosciences departments. . . . The pond was to be drained as part of the construction. As of Tuesday, most of the water had been removed. Fish that were in the pond either were pumped out into the stream or scooped up with other debris, said college spokesman Brett Eaton.

Our reader included a watercolor by Mary Jane Lynch, “showing how wonderful the pond has been thru the years.” Here it is:

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