Community activists and a city councillor are voicing concerns over what they see as a failure by developers to properly replace trees knocked down in mature neighbourhoods.
Members of the West Hillhurst Community Association say they’ve been taking stock of housing projects in their inner-city neighbourhood and say in many cases, trees removed to assist construction aren’t being replaced, contrary to a city bylaw.
“It’s not being monitored and not being enforced,” said Byron Miller, who sits on the community association’s planning committee.
“There are conscientious builders who follow the bylaw and those who completely ignore it.”
He pointed to a city land use bylaw that requires developers to plant one to two trees on sites for each new unit, depending on the size of the lot.
Those trees must be planted on the lot within a year of receiving a development completion permit and maintained for a minimum of 24 after that document was issued.
Miller said that when he approached city officials with concerns over non-compliance, “their response was ‘we have no way of monitoring or enforcing,’ which makes you wonder why we have a bylaw.”
He said the bylaw governing private tree management is even more important than policies affecting city land, particularly as the city densifies in its inner areas.
The community association said if the city can’t or won’t enforce the bylaw, a solution might be to have developers pay into a tree planting fund.
‘Can’t … accept the loss of mature trees as the cost of redevelopment,’ says councillor
Those concerns go beyond northwest Calgary, as evidenced by a July 17 media post penned by Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward, who expressed dismay over older trees being uprooted to make way for housing construction and how they’re being replaced.
He pointed to a photo of mature trees bulldozed at a construction site in the Kingsland area.
“The city’s own 2026 infrastructure assessment acknowledges something important: significant tree-canopy gains don’t occur until 10–20 years after trees are planted, and meeting our canopy target requires both public and private land,” said Ward.
“Yet here in Kingsland, we see mature trees coming down to make way for redevelopment.”
While the removal of those trees on private land is legal, the loss of mature trees and the question of their replacement is a concern, he added.
“We can’t celebrate policies that promise to protect our urban tree canopy, set ambitious targets to double it, and then simply accept the loss of mature trees as the cost of redevelopment,” he said.
Ward wasn’t available for further comment.
A multi-unit infill in Renfrew fills the lot where a single-family home and several mature trees once stood on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
City ‘relies on citizen complaints’
With blanket rezoning having been rescinded, one activist said he’s concerned the tree-planting requirement will be eroded, but added it’s also an opportunity to strengthen the bylaw.
“In some cases, we lose several mature trees and have just one little sapling planted. I think we can do better so it’s not just that one tree,” said Robert Miller, who works with the Forest for Calgary initiative.
But he also said the city currently lacks the capacity to inspect developer compliance, which he said is a problem in his neighbourhood of Bowness.
Another issue is that replacement saplings often die because the city lacks the capacity to water them and residents aren’t aware they need to, said Miller.
A healthy urban canopy is widely seen as valuable for providing shade that reduces heat in communities, a check on climate change and even benefiting mental health.
Related
An organization representing Calgary-area builders said its members honour their regulatory commitments, including those related to greenery.
“BILD Calgary Region members are committed to acting in accordance with all applicable City of Calgary bylaws and building codes, including tree replacement requirements,” BILD’s CEO Amie Blanchette said in an email.
A city spokesperson said they rely on Calgarians to report concerns over the condition of the urban canopy.
“The City relies on citizen complaints or urban forestry to keep an eye on these new infill developments as development inspectors do not attend until they are ready for . . . inspections,” said the city.
“By this stage any damage to trees is usually already done.”
No numbers on non-compliance or enforcement were available.
Plans to plant more trees as urban canopy has decreased
In September 2022, Nature Canada released a tree equity report that found Calgary’s urban canopy covered just 8.14 per cent of the city, based on satellite images as well as 3-D LiDAR data.
In comparison, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal each boasted more than 20 per cent canopy coverage.
The study also showed Calgary’s tree canopy was reduced between 2012 and 2022.
In November 2024, the city announced it will receive nearly $61 million from the federal government’s 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program — a 2019 election promise from then-prime minister Justin Trudeau to plant an additional two billion trees across Canada within a decade.
The funding will allow for 930,000 new trees to be planted across Calgary over the next five years, which the city said will help expand its overall urban forest canopy and provide equitable access for all residents.
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