{"id":832948,"date":"2026-07-29T04:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832948\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T04:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T04:54:10","slug":"city-of-edmonton-taps-calgary-forestry-crews-to-help-clear-tree-debris-from-back-to-back-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832948\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Edmonton taps Calgary forestry crews to help clear tree debris from back-to-back storms"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The City of Edmonton is calling Calgary for backup after back-to-back severe storms left the city\u2019s urban tree canopy severely battered.<\/p>\n

The city says that, as part of a mutual aid agreement, certified forestry crews from the City of Calgary will begin arriving Wednesday to clear fallen limbs and help respond to whole-tree blowdowns.<\/p>\n

Local foresters have already handled thousands of storm-related calls in Edmonton this summer, but constant storms on Saturday and Monday pushed local capacity to its limit, the city said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage to Edmonton\u2019s urban tree canopy is extensive,\u201d said a statement from the City of Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“The specialized demand for tree removal and hazard mitigation has outpaced the existing capacity of city forestry crews and local contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city said crews from Calgary will work alongside Edmonton forestry teams and private contractors for up to seven days. They will clear debris, address hazards and help with mitigation efforts against Dutch elm disease.<\/p>\n

Since June 1, city foresters and contractors have responded to more than 3,000 storm-related issues \u2014 with more than 2,000 of those issues addressed just this month, the city said. Urban forestry crews have handled more than 500 weather-related issues since Saturday evening\u2019s storm, the city noted in a statement on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\"AA thunderstorm passed through Edmonton on July 26, resulting in flooding and fallen trees, pictured at 93 Street and 106A Avenue. (Jamie McCannel\/CBC)Concerns about saturated soil<\/p>\n

As city crews work to tackle damage across Edmonton\u2019s canopy, forestry experts warn waterlogged ground is making trees vulnerable to collapse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This string of intense summer storms has been soaking Edmonton\u2019s ground and making the city’s trees more likely to collapse, said Milton Davies, a professional forester and consulting arborist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese trees are resilient, but again, we\u2019re not used to this kind of water in the soil,\u201d Davies said in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the soil becomes oversaturated with water, Davies said the ground \u201cstarts losing the pore spaces in between the soil particles that the tree roots are actually grabbing onto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens with the soil is important because as it starts losing its structural integrity, the tree roots have nothing to grab onto,\u201d said Davies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the tree roots start to fail as the soil has failed and it has become saturated or supersaturated in a lot of places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg King, an associate professor of environmental science at the University of Alberta\u2019s Augustana campus, said in an interview on Tuesday that this saturated soil combined with heavy winds creates a \u201chigher likelihood for full tree failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have saturated soils \u2026 it\u2019s more likely that you\u2019re going to have trees failing completely and tipping over,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-832948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}