Flushing Meadows nature trail marred by oily muck
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The Pat Dolan Trail in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is frequently flooded with oily liquid that causes deep patches of mud. Photos via Nirmali Fenn/Facebook
By Rachel Vick
Slimy oil and polluted water have once again pooled on a portion of lakeside trail in Flushing Meadows Corona Park that has been collecting filth since at least 2013, locals say.
Photos of greasy liquid seeping into the muddy Pat Dolan Trail, which loops around Willow Lake, drew several comments on a Facebook group for residents of Forest Hills, Rego Park and Kew Gardens Sept. 22.
“Don't tell me that nothing needs to be done,” said Nirmali Fenn, who posted the photos, in a comment directed at the New York City Parks Department.
“We need to try harder to save its natural quality — it has potential to be truly beautiful for plants, animals and humans alike!,” she continued. “The oil from the road shouldn't be seeping into the soil and the lake!”
Fenn told the Eagle she has observed the same issues for years.
“Frankly, I'm shocked with Parks, because even with a limited budget, this has been a problem for years,” she said. “This is evident when you see the nature and how it is struggling — the growth of plants and limited amount of lakeside birds. Pat Dolan walk has been mistreated for too many years.”
A Parks Department spokesperson said they were not aware of the issue but the agency would send officials to investigate.
Fenn isn’t the first park goer to point out problems along the trail, renamed seven years ago to honor Patricia Dolan, the founder and first president of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy.
A 2013 letter to the blog Queens Crap highlighted excessive growth and deep muddy patches along the trail.
“As I wove my way clockwise around the western side of the lake, the path completely gave way to mud several inches thick, traversable only by a few brittle and slippery planks,” wrote reader Jon Torodash. “I didn't dare even take out my camera to snap the worst of it, lest I should have lost my footing and dropped it into who knows what.”
The website LTV Squad, which explores hidden sections of New York City, described similar conditions along the “completely not passable” path a few days later.
By 2017, however, the city had installed new wooden walking planks, motivating one Facebook user to call the quiet trail “a piece of paradise.”
Nevertheless, flooding remains a common occurrence along the path, which is built atop marshland next to Willow Lake.
Stone walkways, pallets and wood chips were added to the trail to improve accessibility and lessen the impact of flooding for voyagers without paving it over.
