Strollers enjoy the walkway that circles the pond.
It was called the Swan Pond when it was inhabited by the graceful birds.
The Conference Center Pond, as it is now called, provides the Laboratory’s main campus with a scenic water feature, often photographed with the Holifield Facility tower that still serves as a Lab landmark. The pond is a favorite destination for mid-day strollers who enjoy its flora and fauna, particularly the fish, the birds, the turtles on the logs and the occasional northern water snake sunning on its rocky banks.
The pond’s beginning goes back to the summer of 1961, and its creation was essentially a practical matter: The low area between the main X-10 site and the Engineering, Physics & Mathematics complex, or 6000 area, to the east was fed by two springs that made it unsuitable for development and difficult to maintain. The best use of the two-and-one-half acre swamp was determined to be a shallow pond.
It came to be known as the Swan Pond because in 1964 physicist Frances (Tony) Pleasonton proposed a fundraiser to purchase a pair of mute swans from Holland. She raised the money — a modest sum of approximately $130 — and the two swans were introduced to X-10, spawning a small, reproducing and popular population of swans that inhabited the pool for four decades.
Going into the 1990s the Swan Pond area was fenced and devoid of trees and landscaping. Nonnative fish introduced to control algae made the water turbid and the only walkway was on the south bank connecting the main campus to the physics complex. Except for the graceful swans, the pond wasn't a very appealing venue.
Although effective as Lab mascots, the swans were not exactly low maintenance. There were instances of swan-pedestrian altercations when strollers wandered too close to the nests. The swans were fed by volunteer staff, and the food also attracted flocks of Canada geese to the area, creating a messy symbiosis.
Beginning in the early 2000s, UT-Battelle's development of the parking lot east of Bldg. 4500-North into the east campus quad complex of federal, state and privately funded buildings made the presence of the interloping geese problematical. Often the gleaming new east campus sidewalks were thick with goose poop. It was determined the swans had to go in order to stop the feeding to dissuade the geese and their feculence, and the swans were removed to the picturesque Morgan County farm ponds of a Lab retiree.
A few geese still meander around the pond area, but nothing like the gaggles of yesteryear. There is also a family of ducks.
The modernization project begun by UT-Battelle in 2001 placed the ORNL Conference Center on the pond’s eastern shore, with a landscaped waterfall and walkway and a boardwalk that circles the pond. Wildlife staff have worked to maintain and ecological balance, which has included the introduction of turtles and a campaign to remove nonnative grass carp and minnows, which destroyed habitat for native fish, and replace them with native species. Environmental Sciences Division and Facilities & Operations staff members have also worked in recent years to curb algae blooms and control the pond lily plant life.
ESD’s Trent Jett outlined the plan for pond maintenance: “One of the big focus areas of the pond when it was remodeled around 2007 was to establish native fish and plants in and around the pond. Prior to this the pond was mostly mowed fescue grass and exotic carp, goldfish and koi in the pond. Since then we have established seven native fish species in the pond and many different aquatic plants that are native to East Tennessee,” he says.
“Kitty McCracken and Jamie Herold have been instrumental in establishing the native plants that are growing around the border of the pond. Kitty works closely with F&O to regularly remove any exotic plants that find their way in and Jamie has helped facilitate which native species should be planted or replaced when necessary,” Trent says.
Today the Conference Center Pond offers a picturesque venue and a walkway for mid-day breaks. The turtles, several of which were introduced for an Earth Day celebration in 2007, appear to be thriving. It may or may not be what was envisioned when the bog was impounded in 1961, but the pond idea has worked out, and lots of staff and visitors enjoy it. — Bill Cabage