Dog gone it!
Prospect Park gardeners are closing the beloved Dog Beach section of the green space until spring next year, while they give the pup paddling pond a makeover — a drag for dog owners and their pets, but one they say will be worth it in the end.
“If the dogs can’t swim this year, that’s a drag, but at the same time, if they’re going to get a better beach at the end, that’s great,” said East Flatbush resident Lou Moreno, who frequently walks his dog Shatzi at Prospect Park during its early morning off-leash hours. “The whole park needs to be maintained, and Mother Nature has to run its course.”
The work will effectively leave Prospect pooches without a place to cool off in the park this summer, as the other doggie swimming hole in Prospect Park Lake is infected with a toxic algae that is deadly to pets, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
But the end result will be a safer and more attractive play space for pups and their parents, according to the Prospect Park Alliance, which maintains Brooklyn’s Backyard.
Gardeners at the Dog Beach will replace existing stone slabs leading up to the water’s edge with more attractive rocks from an upstate quarry, according to a release.
They will also put in new boulders and indigenous flora around the pool, and remove invasive aquatic plants from the shoreline.
Further out from the lake, park workers will replace the existing chain-link fence with a cable and mesh alternative.
Workers will have to drain the pond’s so-called “upper pool” to facilitate the improvements, but not before they pluck out native fish and turtles that would otherwise flounder in the sun.
The Dog Beach restoration effort is part of a larger project that includes improvements to the nearby Long Meadow Ball Fields.
Alliance spokeswoman Grace McCreight couldn’t say exactly what the Dog Beach restoration would cost taxpayers, but said the overall project, including the baseball fields, should weigh in at about $2.6 million.
Councilmen Brad Lander (D–Park Slope) and Steve Levin (D–Brooklyn Heights), and Borough President Adams all allocated some of their budgets to the project, according to the Alliance.
The beach is usually accessible to pooches during the park’s early morning and nighttime off-leash hours, which are from 7 am to 9 am and after 9 pm, according to McCreight.
