Brown, Mud-Filled Pond Prompts Concern Among Bayside Park Group

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — When Dana Gumb went to Crocheron Park on Thursday morning, after the remnants of Hurricane Ida pummeled the city with record rainfall, he was shocked to see the color of Golden Pond.

While the pond’s name never reflected its color — Golden Pond, named after John Golden, appears as more of a blue-green in photographs — Gumb said the rainfall’s erosion turned it the color of “chocolate milk. It’s filled with sediment,” he said.

Wednesday’s storm, which prompted the National Weather Service to issue its first-ever flash flood emergency for New York City and caused deadly flooding across Queens, also resulted in “dramatic” damage in Crocheron Park.

Rushing water tore up grass and branches, bringing them, along with mud and sediment, down the park's paths and into the pond, which is below a hill, photos show.

While Gumb doesn’t think the sediment-filled pond in Crocheron Park will get as much attention as other rain damage in the city’s bigger parks — the Parks Department itself calls the pond “one of the lesser known bodies of water in NYC” — he thinks that without proper cleanup and rebuilding, the pond could eventually disappear.

“You’ll have a dead puddle eventually,” Gumb said, explaining that his concern is that erosion will cause Golden Pond to fill up with more sediment, which from there will reduce the depth, oxygen levels, and life in the pond.

And in a park with many asphalt paths, erosion is a real concern.

“It’s all un-vegetated, so it’s unstable and easily erodible,” he said of some of the park’s asphalt paths, one of which now has a gully in the middle from the intense rushing water.

But, Gumb is still hopeful that with enough work, and investment from the city, the pond will return to its usual life-bearing color.

The 30-year Bayside resident is also the Vice President and Chair of Conservation Committee for Friends of Crocheron & John Golden Park, a group that’s been looking to expand community and city buy-in for Bayside's outdoor spaces as of late.

Alongside Friends, Gumb’s first step will be to try and do a clean up, to limit the amount of extra debris that gets into the park.

From there, some of the other work, like repairing paths, will require a capital project, with funding from the city, he said.

“[Crocheron Park] is kind of out of sight, that’s the other problem, it's not readily visible like so many other issues that are out there,” he said. However, with the help of Friends, Gumb is determined to see something get done.

“We’re going to do our best to address [the damage],” he said, adding “we really don’t want to see all of that mud end up in the pond.”