Flax Pond is a tidal estuary which lies behind a barrier beach at the center of Old Field Village, Setauket, NY. One hundred and thirty-five acres of salt marsh, it is a place of great biodiversity and natural beauty. Flax Pond is a habitat for a range of plant and animal species which depend on the tidal rhythms of the estuary for their life cycle. It is a nursery, a shelter, a food source, and a place of continuing renewal.

Flax Pond is owned by the New York Department of Enviromental Conservation (DEC).
Access to the marsh is by permit only. Please contact the DEC for permit application information.

This year a Unit Management Plan (UMP) for Flax Pond was presented and publicly reviewed. This UMP is currently under revision by a committee including the School of Atmospheric and Marine Sciences at Stony Brook University and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. These are the agencies which own and are responsible for the regulation of Flax Pond. The creation of the UMP attempts to address the myriad of complex interests and issues which collide in the salt marsh when a living marine ecosystem interacts with the human community. At stake is the sustainability of the ecosystem as is comes in contact with human demands for habitation, food-gathering and recreation. Flax Pond is a microcosm not only of the larger ecosystem of salt marshes, but of the many natural ecosystems at risk today throughout the world. So, as Friends of Flax Pond, we, as a community, seek to raise our level of environmental consciousness and stewardship of this priceless natural resource. By engaging in public discussion of the issues raised by the UMP (e.g. should the inlet be dredged, should shellfish harvesting be limited until a shellfish reseeding program is undertaken, should motorboats and/ or hunters be allowed in the marsh or should all recreation be passive, etc.), we continue to learn more about our marine estuaries, what kind of human consumption they can bear, and in what fashion.

Click on the links below to see the UMP and The Friends of Flax Pond response: