Dear Brentwoodians,
Trees
Yesterday a city contractor removed a tree in the small park across the road from my house, and while I am sure there was a good reason for doing so, it made me feel a little sad as well. My son and his friends had used its forked trunk for building forts, and the corner of the park it formerly occupied seems a bit bare now. It was also quite surprising to see just how quickly the crew took the tree down – something that seemed so strong and permanent was gone in less than an hour.
This summer has not been a bad one for smoke here in Calgary, but much of the rest of Canada has experienced another season of hot, dry weather and major wildfires. While we were visiting family in Nova Scotia, the government there banned all trail use due to the tinder-like conditions of the woods there, and in Cape Breton we saw acres of downed trees left by Hurricane Fiona in 2022, just waiting for a wayward spark or lightning strike to ignite. The loss of so much tree cover across our country (and the planet) also represents the loss of an important means of moderating extreme temperatures and threatens a vicious cycle of larger fires and more drought.
I thought about trees again while I was driving into a newer neighbourhood in Calgary’s deep south last weekend: like so many new neighbourhoods, the streets are lined with meagre saplings that offer little shade (and no fort-building opportunities). Hopefully in time these will come to resemble the beautiful tree-filled streets of Brentwood and other established neighbourhoods.
We are fortunate here to enjoy the tree canopy we do, especially at this time of year as the larches and other deciduous trees put on a colourful show. I hope that decisions to remove mature trees are not taken lightly, because they are incredibly valuable to our quality of life and of course take decades to be replaced.
If you want to contribute to our city’s tree canopy, I encourage you to mark your calendars for February and sign up for the Branching Out tree program, through which the City offers trees free of charge to residents. You can find details here: https://www.calgary.ca/parks-rec-programs/nature/branching-out.html.
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