Delaware Trail Spinners

Statement on the Big Pond Project

September 2026
Media contact: Igor Oreper, Communications Director, Delaware Trail Spinners
deltrailspinners@gmail.com

Trail Spinners join Friends of White Clay in asking that Big Pond funding be redirected

The Delaware Trail Spinners, a volunteer organization that has built and maintained trails in Delaware and Maryland parks for more than three decades, opposes the proposed Big Pond project at White Clay Creek State Park and asks that its funding be redirected to the park improvements already identified as higher priorities.

The Trail Spinners board and membership voted overwhelmingly to oppose the project, joining the Friends of White Clay Creek State Park in that position. A permit application for a dam and pond at the site off Paper Mill Road is before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with a 30% design submitted.

Our objection is not to fishing, and it is not to public investment in this park. We have spent decades asking for investment in White Clay. It is to spending several million dollars on a project the park never ranked as a priority, while the work it did rank goes unfunded.

The Master Plan question

DNREC, in partnership with White Clay Creek State Park, developed a Master Plan to direct taxpayer dollars toward the repairs and improvements the park most needs. Big Pond is not in that plan. The construction of Big Pond was not ranked among the park's priorities when those priorities were set.

The project has nonetheless advanced outside that process, through legislative action rather than the park's own priority ranking. Meanwhile the work the Master Plan does call for — trail repairs, bridges, bathhouses, parking, restrooms, stream and habitat restoration, invasive species control, accessibility improvements, and staffing — continues to wait.

The project's estimate has roughly doubled, from about $3 million to about $6 million, with little public discussion of what a new dam and pond would cost to maintain over time.

Impact on the park and its neighbors

Construction would close a section of the park for an extended period, remove several acres of mature trees, and require major excavation and stream work, with heavy equipment moving through the park and along local roads. Residents have raised concerns about traffic and access disruption in Pike Creek and Hockessin, the loss of meadow and woodland habitat, and added demand on local water resources during dry periods.

The park also already offers fishing access, including a pond with an accessible path, accessible fishing docks, parking and restrooms nearby.

Not a restoration

The previous pond at this site, constructed when the land was privately owned, was a shallow, man-made pond built decades ago to draw waterfowl for hunting. Its dam failed years ago and the ground has since returned to meadow. What is proposed now is a larger dam and a deeper pond serving a different purpose. That makes it a new project rather than the restoration of a natural body of water.

The distinction matters. Delaware has spent recent years removing legacy dams from its waterways and replanting trees, including in White Clay Creek State Park. This project runs in the other direction — deforestation and the loss of existing habitat.

Quote
“We have volunteers who have been maintaining these trails for decades. We work with park management and we see what this park needs. It needs washouts repaired, bridges rebuilt, structures repaired and maintained, and better parking and restrooms. Those things are already in the Master Plan. We would rather see the money go there.”
— Vic Nusic, President, Delaware Trail Spinners

Delaware Trail Spinners

Statement on the Big Pond Project

Trail Spinners join Friends of White Clay in asking that Big Pond funding be redirected

The Master Plan question

Impact on the park and its neighbors

Not a restoration

Quote

Further reading

About the Delaware Trail Spinners