Edmonton's fall foliage to get a boost as city looks to add 2M trees

For many Edmontonians, fall is the prettiest time of year, thanks in partto the city's effortsin maintainingitsurban forest.

"I love fall," says the aptly-namedDarren Grove, supervisor of the city's natural areas.

"There are 12.8 million trees in the city of Edmonton all together;about 380,000 of those trees are on boulevards and parks," Grove says.

An estimated 5.8 million trees live innatural areaslike the river valley-ravines system,with the remainder on private property.

Now the city is hoping to add another twomillion trees to its streets and parks, Grove says.

This week the city's urban planning committee talked about the initiative.

Much will depend on the city's budget, Grove says, but he expects a blend of ash, elms, oaks,maples and other ornamental trees would be planted in parks and green spaces, while more natural areas would be planted with poplar, spruce and pine.

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Many of those natural areas are seeing significantly more use frompeople enjoying Edmonton's wooded areasduring the COVID-19 pandemic, Grove says.

"We're still working on hard and fast numbersbut, anecdotally, our crews that empty the garbage cans on the trails in the river valley, normally they'd empty the cans once a week,and this year we've been having to empty the cans at least three times a week."

Fabulous Fall Foliage

4 years ago

Duration 0:40

Sharing some stunning shots set to us by CBC Edmonton viewers and listeners.

You can see more from Blackmud Creek Ravine on Our Edmonton Saturday at 10 a.m., Sunday at noon and 11 a.m. Monday on CBC TV and the CBC GEM.

As for Grove's favourite fall spot to enjoy Edmonton's urban forest?

He heads to Kinnaird Ravine and Hermitage Park where he finds"thegrass still green, the blue from the river and the oranges and the reds from the trees turningnow."