Killarney Lake Park user alarmed by clear-cutting, wider ski trails

A regular user of Killarney Lake Park in Fredericton is worried that development on behalf of cross-country skiers will lead to problems for plants and wildlife.

Val Reeves said she believes the city is cutting cross-country ski trails too wide, up to 12 metres. The city has also clear-cut some areas, plowing under wildflowers and other life.

Reeves, who is a cross-country skier herself, said she discovered the changes after encountering a large bed of lady slippers in the spring of 2016.

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"I'd never seen one like that in my life, and I was trying to get people to come to the park and check it out," said Reeves, who teaches chemistry at the University of New Brunswick.

"In August, that patch of lady slippers was under compacted soil. All the trees around there have been cut and this big open area had basically been clear-cut."

Created stadium area

Reeves said knew some work was planned, but nothing on this scale. The flowers were destroyed because of a clear-cut that she said measures 119 metres by 49 metres.

"It's longer than a football field," she said.

CBC News asked to interview someone at city hall about the changes made at Killarney Lake Park but was told no one was available.  

A spokesperson for the Wostawea Cross-Country Ski Club said the clear-cut was made to provide a stadium area, where skiers can line up to race and spectators can stand.

The park already has an area that is used as a stadium area, but John Ball, president of the club, said it isn't up to competition code.

"We've always used the area right by the lodge," he said.

"The problem is the trails that come in and out of that are flat, or at least too flat to be used as part of a homologated trail."

A homologated trail is one that meets international standards for some levels of competitive races. The stadium area in question is in the start and finish areas of three competitive style trails.

Trail width

Reeves also questioned the width of some of the trails, which she feels are too wide. She said the trails only need to be about four metres wide.

"I went out and measured several of the new trails," she said, reporting widths of six metres up to 12 metres.

Ball said the 12-metre section of trail is actually the same trail but going in two different directions.

"It's actually kind of two trails and as far as I know that's the only section where that kind of width would be involved," he said.

The trails are designed to be consistent with the international trail standard.

"What we were aiming for when building the trails was that they be eight metres wide and that's what they are pretty consistently," said Ball, who also teaches at UNB, in English.

New focus for parks

The City of Fredericton announced the expansion of the trail system in the park in December last year. More than $200,000 came about through a partnership with the city, federal and provincial governments and the ski club.

"This kind of partnership is very much in keeping with our recreation and sport tourism goals, and park improvement planning process," Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien said at the time in a news release.

Work on the trail system was done as part of the Killarney Lake Park Development Plan.   

The city has been evaluating the future of Killarney Lake and Odell park. Consultants hired by the city recommended this summer that Odell become more of a nature reserve, while Killarney be more recreation-oriented.

The consultants' work is still going on, but Coun. Stephen Chase said earlier that a final report is expected in November.