Sunken Meadow Pond in Surry County was created more than a century ago when a dam cut off the flow of local streams into the James River.
Over time, the 150-acre pond has become a beloved local hub of recreation and wildlife watching; and home to species like eagles, swans and blue herons.
“It’s just very peaceful, serene and we just feel very blessed to be able to have this part of our life,” said Roberta Hammel, who lives across the street from the dam at the pond’s entrance.
Hammel and other residents worry a new proposed project meant to conserve the area will instead destroy the current ecosystem they treasure.
The Nature Conservancy, a global nonprofit with a prominent Virginia chapter, plans to purchase more than 500 acres including the pond and surrounding forest, and remove the dam in order to restore historic flow into the river.
“Restoring and re-establishing that connection with the James is the priority to let that system return to a natural, ecologically functioning system,” said Karen Johnson, the Conservancy’s director of wetland and stream mitigation in Virginia.
The goal is to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay by allowing more freshwater to filter in, especially in the James River watershed where there has historically been a lot of pollution-causing development, she said.
But residents say the ecosystem is functioning as-is and changes could disrupt it. They also worry the project, which would be used in part to earn wetlands mitigation credits, is solely benefiting outside parties.
“It’s being robbed from Surry County, from the people in the county,” said Paul Miller, who recently purchased a property nearby specifically because it borders the pond. “And I don't think that that's what the conservation laws intended. (They were) intended to protect wildlife resources, not destroy them.”
Jennifer Youngman, who now lives in Northern Virginia, was one of the property owners who sold the pond recently after it was passed down in her family for many years.
She recalls “it was the place to go in the summer if you lived locally,” featuring a bath house, dance hall and areas to fish and swim. Youngman said she wishes she knew what the plans were for the spot before she sold it.
“It’s just a shame to see the pond drained,” she said.
Johnson said the nonprofit is in the very early stages of a long process that will include more ecological studies and permitting before the pond could be drained.
Late last year, the Conservancy submitted a proposal to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the group does not yet own the land.
Davey Mitigation, an Ohio-based company that facilitates compensatory wetland and stream mitigation projects, bought the land for more than $3 million a few years ago from longtime local owners.
The Conservancy is in the midst of finalizing a purchase agreement, Johnson said.
“If the Nature Conservancy doesn't purchase it and somebody else does, it's unknown what they might focus the property on,” she said. “They might be interested in developing it or harvesting the timber. So first and foremost, we would like to acquire the property and protect it so that the public can know that it will remain forested.”
She said they have mapped out about 50,000 feet of streams outside of the pond footprint, in surrounding hills and forest.
They aim to let those flow back through the pond basin into the James River by removing the dam and letting the wetland and stream system gradually re-orient.
“It’ll be a transitional stage for several years,” she said. “As the site settles out, there will be planting and vegetation.”
They expect the species that live there to remain and even expand “as the habitat becomes healthier and there’s a more diverse system.”
If for some reason they cannot remove the dam, Johnson said they’re still interested in conserving the property.
The Conservancy plans to start working with the community to address concerns, including hosting a public meeting within the next two months and inviting residents to visit a site where the nonprofit conducted a similar project in conjunction with Virginia Commonwealth University, called the Rice Rivers Center.
Residents got a glimpse of what the pond looks like drained when Davey temporarily opened the dam in 2023 to do a topographical study.
“You see a bunch of mudflats where these trees are, and the view goes away,” said Bryan Hammel, Roberta’s husband. “And you got the smell.”
He sees it as a net loss for the environment, because the pond being drained would be used to legally compensate for wetlands being impacted elsewhere.
When a developer damages wetlands while building a project, they are legally required to make up for it elsewhere, using the mechanism of wetlands mitigation credits traded in a “mitigation bank.”
Johnson said the system is a good way to fund conservation efforts. The Conservancy sells mitigation credits, and is therefore always looking for opportunities to earn them while providing long-term ecological management, she said.
If it moves forward, the Sunken Meadow project would undergo a 10-year monitoring period, including managing invasive species and studying changes in water quality.
