{"id":66679,"date":"2026-05-29T20:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/66679\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:23:24","slug":"city-to-plant-180000-new-trees-in-2026-mostly-in-far-northeast-and-north-central-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/66679\/","title":{"rendered":"City to plant 180,000 new trees in 2026 mostly in far northeast and north central: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

After receiving a $61-million boost from the federal government in 2024, the City of Calgary is ramping up its tree-planting program in a bid to expand the city\u2019s lagging urban canopy.<\/p>\n

The funding \u2014 from Ottawa\u2019s former 2 Billion Trees program \u2014 was intended to support planting 930,000 new trees across Calgary over five years. The program was introduced by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, but was phased out in Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s first budget,<\/p>\n

Nearly 168,000 new trees were planted across Calgary in 2025 and more than 180,000 will be planted this year, according to a city report that will be brought to council next week. A similar number of plantings is slated for 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n

The report highlights that tree canopy is still not evenly distributed across Calgary, with some communities \u2014 particularly in newer areas \u2014 having much lower coverage.<\/p>\n

The report also includes a breakdown of tree planting data, by ward and by neighbourhood. According to the data, the two wards with the most tree plantings planned for this year are Ward 3, in north-central Calgary, and Ward 5, in the deep northeast. Both wards will see between 60,000 and 70,000 new trees planted this year.<\/p>\n

A graph from the city<\/a> shows that Ward 5 has the lowest tree canopy in Calgary, at less than three per cent coverage. In comparison, Ward 6, in the southwest, has the most land covered by urban forest, at more than 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

The wards with the lowest number of new trees planned this year are Ward 2 in the northwest and Ward 13 in the southwest, according to the same graph.<\/p>\n

But Paul Atkinson, the city\u2019s urban forestry lead, said it\u2019s more useful to measure canopy coverage on a neighbourhood basis, rather than by ward. He noted that Ward 5, for instance, is home to the Calgary International Airport, which has few trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community level helps us develop actionable criteria, street by street,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trees provide extensive environmental, public health and well-being benefits, Atkinson said, such as improving air quality, stormwater management, wildlife habitat provision and community character, in addition to reducing heat island effects.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, a tree equity report from Nature Canada revealed that Calgary has far less urban forestry coverage<\/a> than Canada\u2019s other largest cities.<\/p>\n

The study indicated Calgary\u2019s tree canopy covered a little over eight per cent of the city \u2014 well below Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, which all boasted more than 20 per cent tree coverage across their municipal boundaries.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s residential tree canopy, by community, in 2022.<\/p>\n

Canopy percentages were measured using satellite imagery as well as 3-D lidar data.<\/p>\n

Atkinson said the tree deficit in Calgary can be partially explained by the fact the city was founded on a prairie landscape, which didn\u2019t have a large tree coverage to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you compare to some of these other centres, Calgary has a higher elevation, the least amount of rainfall and did not have large existing stands of natural trees that the city was cut into or surrounded by,\u201d he said. \u201cThose factors are huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nature Canada\u2019s study also showed that Calgary\u2019s tree canopy was reduced slightly between 2012 and 2022. The depletion was caused by a large number of aging trees that needed to be felled, significant weather events and a rise in urban development.<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s parks plan and municipal development plan outline a target of increasing the city\u2019s urban canopy to 16 per cent by 2060, with a focus on increasing tree coverage in underserved neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are improving tree equity by reviewing the historical context of tree planting practices, supporting access to information and engagement in all communities, and planting diverse tree species to help grow a healthy and resilient canopy,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

As of 2024, Calgary\u2019s urban forestry coverage was 9.62 per cent, according to the report. The city has more than 500,000 inventoried trees and more than 2,200 hectares of forested natural areas.<\/p>\n

Atkinson said canopy percentages are only one indicator of the health of a city\u2019s urban forest, however, noting it\u2019s also a lagging indicator. That\u2019s because it can take five to 10 years after a tree is planted, depending on its size, before that tree is acknowledged in the city\u2019s canopy measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really an outcome factor of what happens once the trees are established, and we can start to pick them up on the various aerial scans and imagery, which contributes to the percentage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about the exponential growth of trees we have in Calgary, pretty much everything you see around the city has been installed by somebody at some point. It\u2019s a very young canopy, for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bookmark this website and support our journalism: Subscribe now so you don\u2019t miss the news you need to know and sign up for our free newsletters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After receiving a $61-million boost from the federal government in 2024, the City of Calgary is ramping up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51,4341,28121,10563,28118,28120,7571,28122,28119],"class_list":["post-66679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-international-airport","tag-nature-canada","tag-paul-atkinson","tag-tree-canopy","tag-tree-coverage","tag-tree-planting","tag-tree-plantings","tag-urban-forestry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}