{"id":907403,"date":"2026-09-24T04:14:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907403\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T04:14:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:14:42","slug":"second-life-zoo-calgary-parks-team-up-for-habitat-additions-in-animal-enclosures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907403\/","title":{"rendered":"Second life: Zoo, Calgary Parks, team up for habitat additions in animal enclosures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The City of Calgary is branching out in its management of the city\u2019s forest canopy in a new habitat partnership with the Wilder Institute \/ Calgary Zoo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thousands of kilograms of trees and branches removed as part of Calgary\u2019s urban forest maintenance program are now being used at the zoo as forage, food, and fun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the City of Calgary, the tree removals and the pruning is all done as part of the proactive management of safety risks for dead and dying trees around the city. Rather than going into compost, they sought out a second life for the wood and leaves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe urban forest plays an important role in Calgary\u2019s quality of life. This partnership shows how we can continue generating value even after a tree\u2019s lifecycle has ended,\u201d said Wayne Driscoll, urban forestry superintendent with Calgary Parks and Open Spaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBy connecting City operations with community partners like The Wilder Institute\u2019s Calgary Zoo, we are advancing sustainability, reducing waste, and creating meaningful benefits for both people and animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Calgary zoo volunteers helped to strip branches of leaves, bag the woody material, leaves and seeds, cut and sort the smaller branches and move materials to a place where they could be transported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wilder Institute \/ Calgary Zoo collected 304, 6-to-7-kilogram bags of browse (food), 10, 16-22 kg barrels of wood materials, 1.5 truckloads of bagged branches, and several large logs that will be used for animal habitats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re always excited to receive wood like this because it gives us new opportunities to enrich the lives of the animals in our care,\u201d said Katharine Varz\u00e9, Horticulture Manager with the Wilder Institute \/ Calgary Zoo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u201cWhether it\u2019s fresh browse for animals to eat or larger logs that become part of their habitats, there are lots of ways we can put this material to use. It\u2019s pretty special to see trees from Calgary\u2019s urban forest find a second life here at the zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Calgary Parks is also working with the zoo to provide removed caragana plants as potential food for the resident giraffes.<\/p>\n<p>Liked it? Take a second to support Staff LiveWire Calgary on Patreon!<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/patreon.com\/oauth2\/become-patron?response_type=code&amp;min_cents=100&amp;client_id=124va5LCGkf0W5diayeAVrAfzNPGqgZMKg7Tqf5fc8Om18_1Bxu6Phr83NzUUvoy&amp;scope=identity%20identity[email]&amp;redirect_uri=https:\/\/livewirecalgary.com\/patreon-authorization\/&amp;state=eyJmaW5hbF9yZWRpcmVjdF91cmkiOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGl2ZXdpcmVjYWxnYXJ5LmNvbVwvMjAyNlwvMDlcLzIzXC9zZWNvbmQtbGlmZS16b28tY2FsZ2FyeS1wYXJrcy10ZWFtLXVwLWZvci1oYWJpdGF0LWFkZGl0aW9ucy1pbi1hbmltYWwtZW5jbG9zdXJlc1wvIn0%3D&amp;utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Flivewirecalgary.com%2F2026%2F09%2F23%2Fsecond-life-zoo-calgary-parks-team-up-for-habitat-additions-in-animal-enclosures%2F&amp;utm_medium=patreon_wordpress_plugin&amp;utm_campaign=1747135&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=post_unlock_button\" aria-label=\"Click to become a patron at Patreon!\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px;max-width:200px;width:100%;height:auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790223282_525_become_a_patron_button.png\" alt=\"Become a patron at Patreon!\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Calgary is branching out in its management of the city\u2019s forest canopy in a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,180230,48,1050,60],"class_list":["post-907403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-zoo","tag-canada","tag-community","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907403","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=907403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}