UNM duck pond closed until spring 2025 for renovations

University of New Mexico students will miss the familiar sight of ducks waddling around the UNM duck pond. At least for the time being.

In October, UNM announced that the duck pond will go through a revitalization process aimed to replace infrastructure and improve safety, accessibility and preservation methods for the animals making the pond their home.

Turtles, fish and, of course, ducks, will be relocated to the UNM Championship Golf Course during the process. Wild ducks are expected to naturally migrate to find new sources of water.

The duck pond has been closed since Nov. 6 and is estimated to reopen in the spring when the project is completed. Visitors will still have access to the greenery surrounding the duck pond.

The decision to start the project followed a feasibility study from 2018.

“The feasibility study looked at all of these aspects and made a very long list of recommendations,” said Rosie Dudley, director of campus capital and space planning. “We received funding to implement those recommendations, but it wasn’t enough to do all the improvements. So what we focused on in this first phase is the environmental health of the pond itself.”

The revitalization project is estimated to cost $4 million and is funded through 2023 institutional bonds. The project is the first phase of the pond renovations.

Phase two of the renovations would add seating near the pond.

Dudley said the study found the duck pond is too shallow, lowering the quality of the water itself and forcing UNM to do an annual water removal to clean the bottom of the pond.

“There will be more wetland, sort of, edges so it can filter some of the runoff from storm water events through the grasses of those wetlands before it gets into the depth of the pond itself,” Dudley said. “The wildlife that lives and gathers there can have more healthy water to swim and live in.”

Along with more wetlands, visitors at the duck pond can expect to see a new single span pedestrian bridge, according to UNM project and construction manager Michael Pierce.

“We’ll keep the same pump house but we will rebuild everything inside of it with new pumps, new plumbing that feeds the water into the duck pond and new filtration,” Pierce said. “The new design has what we call a safety shelf that provides a lower depth near the edge of the pond where we have pedestrian walkways. If someone were to fall in, they wouldn’t fall into something very deep.”