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Trees in Calgary

Silence&Motion said:
The topic of Vancouver's trees came up in another thread. I was just playing around with the time function on Google Street view and was blown away by how quickly trees grow in that city:

Main St @ 33 Ave in 2009, spindly, newly planted trees:
View attachment 320647

Main St @ 33 Ave just ten years later (2019), epic tree-lined street
View attachment 320648


By point of comparison, here's Patterson Blvd in Calgary in the same time period.

2009 (spindly, newly planted trees):
View attachment 320654

2019 (spindly 10+ year old trees):
View attachment 320655
Click to expand...

Silence&Motion said:
The topic of Vancouver's trees came up in another thread. I was just playing around with the time function on Google Street view and was blown away by how quickly trees grow in that city:

Main St @ 33 Ave in 2009, spindly, newly planted trees:
View attachment 320647

Main St @ 33 Ave just ten years later (2019), epic tree-lined street
View attachment 320648


By point of comparison, here's Patterson Blvd in Calgary in the same time period.

2009 (spindly, newly planted trees):
View attachment 320654

2019 (spindly 10+ year old trees):
View attachment 320655
Click to expand...
I find American Elm (like pictured at bottom), don’t grow very fast in Calgary.

Now if they plant Swedish Aspens or Norwegian Spruce, it’d look a lot more impressive in 10 years.
 
CBBarnett said:
Spending time in the redeveloping inner communities is another interesting comparison. Each lawn and house has such a high degree of variability from a combo of factors, redevelopment of older parcels with mature vegetation only being one of them. More noticeable is the completely random level of interest people have in their lawns and gardens which have deviated greatly over time as the community ages and each property has had many owners since.

Here's a few highlights I recall from the past summer wandering around and some specific:
  • 1950s bungalows with only grass and no shrubs
  • 1950s bungalows with rocks instead of grass
  • 1950s bungalows with about 2 feet extra of top soil and decades of meticulous gardening
  • Recent infills with incredibly manicured lawns and gardens
  • Recent infills with plastic grass and no trees
Example 1 - someone who loves gardening, hates lawns and has been giving 100% effort for decades:
View attachment 458834

Example 2 - someone who never thought about gardening or lawns in decades directly across the street from #1:
View attachment 458839

Example 3 - Someone who hates gardening and lawns and has 1000x the wealth as the rest of us. Glad this guy is saving on the maintenance costs with the plastic lawn, that should help with the $50,000 / month mortgage payments :)
View attachment 458835

Example 3 is the funniest to me - I'll never understand the extremely wealthy's choices. There's a middle ground between cheap zero maintenance plastic and being a passionate DIY gardener. Especially if the goal is to show-off your wealth a bit. Just hire someone to take care of it for you.

EDIT - notably, all these examples are within a kilometre of each other. Climate is a thing that effects trees and what plants we can grow, but clearly it's not the actual critical issue to why we do or don't have trees or vegetation.
Click to expand...
I love the 1st example. Wish I knew how to garden/landscape as I’d love to turn my yard into something similar. I did plant vines and trees, but all but one died. At least my bushes remain lol
 
This is a totally random question but it had me wondering over the weekend, when the city cuts down large trees on main streets that have the grates around them, is that just forever destined to be a stump now? I just noticed while I was walking down 17th and 4th street, that there's all these missing mature trees that were integrated into the sidewalks. What happens from here in terms of replacing or updating, or is it just forever a stump?
 

Poplar trees are a peril that need pulling says councillor, but experts disagree​

https://livewirecalgary.com/2025/07...pulling-says-councillor-but-experts-disagree/

Chabot and Demong seem to be barking up the dumbest possible tree here...

“If you have a heavier, denser sidewalk, perhaps with root barriers, you can plant any species,” he said.


“Poplars are a good tree for Calgary.”


During the upcoming Executive Committee meeting, Coun. Chabot said that he will call on the city to take responsibility for the way poplars have eroded sidewalks, and that he would like to see trees with less invasive roots replace them.


Yet, Friesen said that even if a different species replaced poplars, it’s likely for the new sapling to follow the same path as its predecessor. Instead, he recommended that the attention shift toward changing the sidewalk material from cement to something more adaptable.


“It would be good if the councillors called for additional work, innovative work, to find a more sustainable sidewalk design,” said Friesen.


Preaching the same idea, Addy said that if the goal is to ensure that residents see their neighbourhoods’ walkways as safe and accessible, then she urges the city to fund implementing rubber pavement as opposed to removing trees.


“If we keep designing and building sidewalks the same way we are now, we’re going to have this problem, so what is the city going to do differently to help the tree roots go down deeper and not stay shallow?” said Addy.
Click to expand...
 
lemongrab said:

Poplar trees are a peril that need pulling says councillor, but experts disagree​

https://livewirecalgary.com/2025/07...pulling-says-councillor-but-experts-disagree/

Chabot and Demong seem to be barking up the dumbest possible tree here...
Click to expand...
“The city is reluctant to remove any of those trees, even though they’re breaking up sidewalks, because they’re healthy,” said Coun. Chabot.

“Why do we have to wait until it dies before we can replace it?”

It is a sidewalk, just walk around. Let big mature trees live please. Calgary has a dearth of trees as it is.....

Chabot being gone from Council in October is something I cannot wait for honestly. Hopefully whoever is chosen in Ward 10 next is better than him.
 
Don't all trees affect sidewalks?

I'll give them the concern with falling branches, poplars are pretty soft and flimsy...
 
Dārayavauš said:
“The city is reluctant to remove any of those trees, even though they’re breaking up sidewalks, because they’re healthy,” said Coun. Chabot.

“Why do we have to wait until it dies before we can replace it?”

It is a sidewalk, just walk around. Let big mature trees live please. Calgary has a dearth of trees as it is.....

Chabot being gone from Council in October is something I cannot wait for honestly. Hopefully whoever is chosen in Ward 10 next is better than him.
Click to expand...
Chabot is running again, as part of the communities first YYC slate:
communitiesfirstyyc.com

Communities First YYC | Prioritizing the Community

Communities First is a unique caucus in Calgary made up of like-minded individuals committed to independently representing our constituents.
communitiesfirstyyc.com communitiesfirstyyc.com

Demong is not running again, leaving Ward 14 wide open.
 
MichaelS said:
Chabot is running again, as part of the communities first YYC slate:
communitiesfirstyyc.com

Communities First YYC | Prioritizing the Community

Communities First is a unique caucus in Calgary made up of like-minded individuals committed to independently representing our constituents.
communitiesfirstyyc.com communitiesfirstyyc.com

Demong is not running again, leaving Ward 14 wide open.
Click to expand...
I hope every Communities First councillor candidate loses.
 
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