Chris Yun, August 19, 2025
Pfister’s Pond: A History
As a man-made pond with records of its existence going all the way back to 1912, Pfister’s Pond is nestled within the Tenafly Nature Center, around half a mile from the Visitor’s Center. The pond’s origins trace back to a time when the land served a different purpose than its current use as a recreational and educational ground.
Historical remnants and information compiled by the organization indicate that the area was originally used for livestock, physical evidence such as rusty horseshoes and stone wall supporting this notion. “Acccording to the current resident of Laimbeer House (the historic house in the Nature Center) there was a horse training academy at some point”, says Alexander Braunstein, the current Land & Facilities Manager of the Nature Center. “My going theory is that it was dammed up and created so that there was a more ready water source for the livestock that was up here”
Pfister’s Pond, which is primarily supported by rainfall and stormwater drains in places like Montana Dr., feeds into the Tenakill Brook and ultimately ends up in the Hackensack River and the Hudson.
Battle against lilypads?
Overgrowth of the Yellow Pond Lily is an ongoing problem at the Pfister’s Pond, something that has records of being present from the 1960s. Although these lily pads were a target of a larger restoration effort in 2022, they persist to be a problem for the Nature Center. Two options that were considered for addressing the issue was dredging, a process that involves draining the pond and removing the sediment at the bottom, or hydroraking, using an underwater rake to scoop up the lily pad roots from the sediment. The option the Nature Center opted for was hydroraking, as dredging is extremely disruptive to the native ecosystem.
Currently, the nature center is considering similar approaches to this issue while continuing to monitor the pond’s health. There exists a pH and electrical conductivity monitor at an inlet pipe that feeds from stormwater runoff drains and a buoy tracking dissolved oxygen and conductivity.
These are part of a more recent effort from the nature center, as outside of infrequent water quality tests before 2022 and a sediment analysis in 2015, there have not been many historical records for the quality of the pond.
Future Steps
“A swamp wants to be a swamp”, says Alexander Braunstein, "if we can maintain it as the educational resource that it is, we have a reason to be doing it”. Having an open body of water is a great opportunity for biodiversity, education, and recreation, thus the lily pad problem is a priority to address if the pond is to remain aligned with the Nature Center’s goals.
Although it is difficult to say whether the problem will be completely dissolved at any point, we can be certain that the overgrowth of lilypads will not go unchecked for the foreseeable future.