This year’s Calgary Branching Out program is set to begin, and the city is doubling the potential enjoyment for citizens taking their trees.

The program, now in its sixth year, allows residents to sign up and collect trees, free of cost. They can then plant and care for these trees, ultimately adding to their area’s overall tree canopy coverage.  Registration begins April 7 at 10 a.m. for southwest Calgary residents. Registration for subsequent quadrants will open each Monday.  

Throughout the city of Calgary, the tree canopy coverage varies greatly, and things like the Branching Out tree program aim to even the playing field. The program’s trees are free to acquire, with a higher number of trees for lower-income areas with less tree coverage. 

Of the 5,000 trees the city is offering in the program, 1,000 will go to the northwest, 1,000 will go to the southwest, 1,500 will go to the northeast and 1,500 will go to the southeast. This year marks the first time the city has expanded their trees offered per person from one to two.

The decision to separate the registration by quadrant and how the trees will be divided was an intentional move by the program. 

“It’s totally to try and equitably distribute trees to areas that have a lower tree canopy percentage,” said Alan Joiner, Urban Forestry Superintendent with Parks & Open Spaces with the City of Calgary.

Across the city, the difference in coverage is substantial in some cases. In the southwest community of Wildwood, the tree canopy coverage is 37.97 per cent. In the northeast community of Cornerstone, the tree canopy coverage is 0.22 per cent.  

The distribution of the trees is not the only factor in making the event a success. 

“It’s also knowing that we’re helping more people fall in love with trees and knowing that more people will care for the trees,” he said.  

This year, the city is offering 23 species of trees in the program, including Silver Cloud Maple, Mountain Pine and Honeycrisp Apple. The trees come in a five-gallon bucket, and they range in height from three feet (conifers) to five to seven feet for ornamental, canopy, and fruit-bearing trees.

The trees are free of charge to those who register.

“It lowers some of the barriers that Calgarians have to acquire trees,” Joiner said.

“Some people, they may not have previously considered getting a tree for their yard, but with this program, they will.”

Canopy creates cooler communities

The Calgary Climate Hub has invested both time and energy into improving Calgary’s tree canopy coverage, with their Forests for Calgary program and their Calgary Tree Equity webpage.

The tree canopy is the overhead coverage of trees and branches when they have their foliage, which can provide shade and habitat.

According to Rob Miller, lead of the nature node with Calgary Climate Hub, a spruce tree provides minimal coverage, but a poplar or oak tree creates a larger canopy. 

Miller said the lower canopy coverage in certain communities can be due to multiple factors, including higher owner/renter turnover, industrial areas, new communities and the difficult growing process for new trees.  

High canopy coverage communities like Mount Royal and Sunnyside are more than 100 years old, allowing for many decades of growth and maturity for trees.  

“Lower income neighborhoods tend to have less tree canopy, and that’s true in Calgary,” Miller said.  

“If you’ve been down some inner-city residential streets where the whole street is actually covered by trees, that’s a good example of a tree canopy.”

Having un-wooded urban areas can create urban heat islands, Miller said. These islands happen when urban areas filled with materials like concrete absorb heat. 

“You can see as much as a 20-degree Celsius difference between the roadside versus a park with a lot of trees,” said Miller. 

“By having rows lined with trees, instead of having heat islands, you have cooling islands, where people can go on a day when it’s 30 or 35 Celsius and find some shade.” 

Branching out aside, the Calgary Climate Hub, in partnership with Women Who Make Stuff Happen, has organized an event they’re calling a “Tree Party” set to happen May 31. The event will include tree planting around the city and keynote speakers.

For those registering for a Branching Out tree, the registration, along with the pickup locations, can be found on the City of Calgary’s website.