Bergen Swamp

In 1935, a group of twenty-three conservationists in and around Rochester, NY formed the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society. Some were garden club members, others from the University of Rochester, the Botany Section of the Rochester Academy of Science as well as the New York State Forestry Association. Their goal was to preserve a unique tract of land that had the potential to degrade from orchids to onions. In 1947, the Rochester Garden Club won the Founders Fund award to gift the Society with 24 acres of additional swamp land known as the Garden Club of America Tract.

The Bergen Swamp is a wet woods, with a complex system of alkaline and acid soils, that favors a richness of plants uncommon in the area. It’s a plant preserve nestled in a terrain of open marsh bogs, swamp, cedar thickets and forest. There are 2,324 known species of plants including the rare Cypripedium candidum orchid. Many birds and protected species such as the Massaugua rattler and Muhlenberg’s bog turtle, nest in the swamp.

In 1964, Bergen Swamp received the first ever designation of a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service. It continues as an education institution to hold and preserve its lands and to conserve the flora and fauna within. The Bergen Swamp Preservation Society continues to offer schools, colleges and other interested parties access for observation and study.