Park is highly used for family outings, but isn't without its problems.

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Matt Carter

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In the centre of our capital city sits a forest. Its trails and pathways welcome countless walkers, runners, bikers, and outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds. Its wide open green spaces are home to picnics, get-togethers and reunions. Families converge on the park each day of spring, summer, and fall to barbecue meals and bask in the beauty of their natural surroundings. This deep wooded area also provides a home to many forest creatures, plants, and animals not found elsewhere in the city’s central district.
The park boasts over 16 kilometres of trails and walkways, with countless sidings leading adventurous hikers through some of the most beautiful scenery around. It’s the second largest park in the city with roughly 175 hectares of trees and trails.
Odell Park was first opened to the public in 1954 on land that once formed the estate of Reverend Jonathan Odell, a physician, British Army surgeon, clergyman, poet, and United Empire Loyalist. Born in Newark, NJ on September 25, 1737, Odell was trained in medicine but later joined the Church of England. He served as a parish priest in Burlington, New Jersey before fleeing to New York during the American Revolution. There he worked in support of the Loyalist cause by whatever means he was able, including aiding in the espionage activities of Benedict Arnold and John André. He immigrated to New Brunswick in 1784 and became New Brunswick’s first provincial secretary.
Incidentally, he was also the godfather of Clement C. Moore, the writer who penned the classic Christmas poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas. In recent years, Odell’s life was the topic of the 1987 book, Jonathan Odell, Loyalist Poet of the American Revolution, published by the Duke University Press.
The park which bares his name is a popular destination for Frederictonians year-round. At the entrance of the park, visitors are greeted with a bulletin board and a pair of maps outlining the park’s main trails for use in the spring, summer, and fall. Next to that map is another, similar map outlining the best ski routes for cross-country skiers. One area resident even remembers there being a ski lift during the winter months. Although a lift hasn’t been in place for years, skiers continue to flock to the park when its trails and pathways become snow-covered.
“The great thing about Odell Park is its location,” said Brian Cochrane, manager for the city’s parks and trees division. “It’s a 400-acre park surrounded by subdivisions and development, which is something most municipalities don’t have in the centre of their city. It’s a great place for people to go and view nature.”
Upon entering the trail system that leads through the middle and around the perimetre of the grounds, visitors are greeted by the sounds of nature. The thick bush acts as a natural barrier for the sounds of the city, leaving only nature’s songs to fill the air. The canopy of treetops dictates what light is allowed through to highlight the park’s many unique trees, some over 300 years old. Although many have fallen over the course of time, new growth has replaced them, and as they lie sprawled across the forest floor, they take on a new role in contributing to the park’s beautiful landscape. Odell Park is nothing short of breath-taking.
While the park may be a highly used spot for many family outings, it isn’t without its troubles. A few metres into the tree line of Wagoner’s Lane paints a completely different picture than what visitors see when going through the park’s main entrance. Behind a bench that looks out onto the street and the adjacent apartment buildings, empty beer cans and bottles, mouthwash bottles, cigarette butts, broken glass, and bags of litter can be found strewn around what appears to be a popular meeting place.
“We have had some illegal activities going on in the park,” said Cochrane. “In response to that we have worked with the police and have hired a security firm to do regular patrols in the evenings.”
He feels that since the liquor store on Queen Street closed its doors to the public, much of the outdoor drinking crowd has relocated to the park area, creating a new problem for the park’s management.
“We try to combat that by thinning certain areas out to make them less appealing to those people. We’ve also notified the police about the problem as well,” he said.
Cochrane says that through a combined effort by city police, private security companies, and his department, they’re tackling these issues effectively.
“At certain times we get areas we consider to be hotspots, and we work with the police and the security companies on these issues,” he said. “We don’t work in isolation of each other. We’ll have a meeting with both these groups and set to plans to tackle any problems we may encounter.”
Constable Ralph Currie, spokesperson for the Fredericton City Police, thinks the park is sufficiently monitored for any problems that may take place.
“Car patrols going through the woods are probably not done as frequently as patrols around the exterior,” said Currie, “but because we do receive complaints about activity that goes on in there, our Neighbourhood Action teams do regular foot patrols through the area. It’s a huge area. Things like drinking and drug use that may go on usually take place in certain areas and these areas are quickly identified.”
There’s also a park patrol. Summer students are hired to keep a regular presence in these areas to act as a deterrent for such activity.
In recent months, a number of trees within the park also appear to have been burned and defaced with graffiti. City officials are thankful there have been no major incidents involving fires deliberately being set, yet they admit these incidents have occurred.
“We haven’t had many problems with fires there in the last couple of years,” said Cochrane. “In the past, on occasion, people had lit fires and it would take a while before they’d get noticed. The dangerous thing about a fire in a wooded area is that the fire can go underground and then flare up again later. That can be a big problem, but we haven’t had a big problem in that regard over the past few years, knock on wood.”
Despite the occasional presence of undesirable activity, Odell Park remains a hot destination for the public. With another major park under development around the Killarney Lake area of the city, Cochrane feels Odell’s place and reputation, as a forest within a city, will keep residents coming back for many years to come.
“We feel that park is almost at its maximum capacity right now,” said Cochrane. “We haven’t increased the services to the area because of that. We don’t feel there’s a need for a huge outdoor pool or a giant playground because these services exists in other city parks.”
The park’s location, its trails, its many flowerbeds, and even its connection to the city’s botanical gardens, are all appealing aspects of this famous plot of land. With the fall’s change of colour just around the corner, Odell Park will continue to draw visitors looking to trade the sounds of the city for the warmth and comfort of nature.