By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
It’s not everyday you see a moose take a swim across a pond while you eat a sandwich. But it’ll certainly be more likely in Big Sky in Meadow Village.
The Huntley-Kern pond, formerly known as Coyote Pond, had its first season with a beach thanks to the Big Sky Owners Association and around 100 donations. Next up, BSOA plans to install a fishing dock donated by the Big Sky Rotary Club, fundraise $400,000 and build an events pavilion.
“ We’re trying to create an event venue that people can use for the next fifty years,” Holly Coltea, BSOA executive director, told EBS. The space would be located to the left of the pond when facing Lone Mountain, have electricity, lighting and ample seating when it’s complete, Coltea said. A paved parking lot next to the pavilion will give visitors access to the events space, and the pond by a re-graveled path.
The goal is for the pond to be a natural part of the environment.
“We want it to feel really natural and not like a swimming pool—you know, swimming is at your own risk. We’re not going to be testing it on a regular basis or treating the water,” Coltea said. “… You’re going to have geese, and you’re going to have moose, and you’re going to have, even dogs, just roaming in there. That’s kind of the vision of what it will be.”
Restoring the area with native plants is also a priority, Coltea stated in a later email.
“Given the corridor’s long-standing noxious weed pressure and the scale of the recent disturbance, restoration of a healthy native plant community will take time,” Coltea wrote. Grow Wild, the Big Sky nonprofit aiming to conserve native species and build stewardship, is collaborating with BSOA to ensure a more viable future for native plants around the pond.
Plants like native grasses, willows, sedges and rushes can “gradually recolonize disturbed areas,” Coltea noted, and the process requires collaboration and adaptation. BSOA will continue working with both Grow Wild and the Gallatin County Weed District to reduce invasive plants and introduce native ones.
‘Tucked away’ in the middle of Big Sky
Coltea noted the beach feels like its own slice of Big Sky nature without the surrounding traffic, trucks, stoplights and stores.
“The beauty of this pond is it is sandwiched right in the middle of Big Sky’s urban center … it feels like you’re totally tucked away,” Coltea noted, reflecting on a picnic she had with BSOA colleagues. “I think as Big Sky grows, finding those little pockets of these oases is getting harder, and you have to really go outside of Big Sky to find it. And the beauty of [the pond] is we’re delivering this oasis to people’s fingertips with ultimate convenience,” Coltea said.
The small body of water by Big Sky Community Park is an offline pond from the Gallatin River, making it a more fluid, moving pond instead of fully stagnant. Often a spot where moose pass through and birds rest, residents in Big Sky are slowly becoming a part of the little ecosystem in Meadow Village.
