Last Chance Pond Park

About

Last Chance Pond Park is a wetland park located on Staten Island's East Shore and part of the main channel of the New Creek stream and the Staten Island Bluebelt in New York City. Located on the northeast migration flyway, Last Chance Pond Park hosts a wide range of local flora and fauna that visit and live in the landscape of the park that includes two saltwater marshes, a fresh spring, and a freshwater pond. The park was named after the Last Chance Pond and Wilderness Foundation which helped to preserve the site starting in the mid-1960s.

Before the completion of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, the neighborhood of Dongan Hills contained mostly wetlands, one and two-family detached homes, and garden apartments. The park area had 50 lots that were previously undeveloped wetlands with "no trails or signs indicating the pond's presence." With the bridge opening the residents had concerns about developers "buy[ing] old homes, tear[ing] them down and build[ing] town houses, changing the neighborhood's character."