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You Now Know More Than Most Calgarians. Here's What to Do With It.
What You've Just LearnedOver the past five posts you've covered ground that most Calgarians — including many people who work at city hall — haven't connected into a single picture. Let's bring it together.Calgary has an 8% tree canopy, one of the lowest of any major Canadian city, distributed so unequally that some communities have 25% coverage while others have under 3%. That gap is not natural — it's the accumulated result of 130 years of planning decisions that consistently prioritized establ…
23 Úno 2026
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The Heat Tax: How Calgary's Canopy Gap Becomes a Health Crisis
A Tale of Two SummersOn a hot July afternoon in Calgary, two residents experience the same day very differently.In Elbow Park, mature elms arch over the street creating a canopy that drops the surface temperature by up to 10 degrees Celsius. The air feels cooler. Children play outside. Elderly residents sit on shaded porches. The neighbourhood has been absorbing and deflecting heat for a century.In Cityscape, the same afternoon is brutal. Treeless streets radiate heat absorbed from the sun since…
23 Úno 2026
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930,000 Trees: Calgary's Big Promise and the Fight Over Where They Go
A Promise Written in Federal DollarsIn the fall of 2024 Calgary received a significant injection of federal funding and committed to one of the most ambitious urban forestry goals in the city's history — 930,000 new trees by 2029. As of early 2025, roughly 200,000 had already been planted since 2023. The number is striking. The ambition is real. The money exists.But a commitment to plant trees is not the same as a commitment to plant them where they're needed most. And that gap — between the hea…
23 Úno 2026
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The Private Property Gap: Why Half of Calgary's Land Has No Tree Protection
The Invisible Problem Nobody Talks AboutCalgary has a Tree Protection Bylaw. What most residents don't know is that it only applies to trees on public land — parks, natural areas, and road right-of-ways. The moment you step onto private property, that protection disappears entirely.Private land makes up roughly half of Calgary's total area. Every tree on every residential lot, every mature elm in a backyard, every boulevard tree someone planted themselves decades ago — none of it is protected. A…
22 Úno 2026
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The Hidden Barriers: Why Can't Calgary Just Plant More Trees?
When people hear that Calgary's newest communities have almost no tree canopy, the obvious question is: why doesn't the city just plant more trees there? It sounds simple. It isn't. The barriers are real, layered, and in some cases genuinely expensive to overcome. Understanding them is essential to proposing solutions that will actually work.Calgary is one of the hardest places in Canada to grow treesStart with geography. Calgary sits at over 1,000 metres above sea level on the edge of the north…
22 Úno 2026
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The Unequal Canopy: Why Your Postal Code Determines Your Shade
Walk down a street in Mount Royal or Altadore on a hot July afternoon and you'll find yourself in a tunnel of green. Mature elms and ash trees arch over the road, dropping the temperature by several degrees and blocking the sun entirely. Now drive thirty minutes northeast to Saddle Ridge or Cityscape and step outside. The streets are open to the sky. There are no arching trees, no shade, no relief. Just sun, concrete, and heat.Both neighbourhoods are in the same city. Both pay the same property …
22 Úno 2026
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