BP BirthPlace Forest
About the program
The BP BirthPlace Forests were launched by BP Canada, The City of Calgary Parks, The Calgary Health Region and Golden Acre Garden Sentre to celebrate every newborn baby in Calgary by planting a tree in their honour. Nine BP BirthPlace Forests were created across the city with over 50,000 trees dedicated to over 33,000 babies. Planted trees were not tracked to an individual child. Instead, each forest served to celebrate all the children born in that year.
The BP BirthPlace Forest partnership funding agreement ended December 31, 2009 and the 2009 forest, celebrated in June 2010, was the final forest.
The original goals of the BP BirthPlace Forest program, including educating Calgarians about the importance of Calgary's urban forest and increasing a sense of connection to, ownership of, and pride in the health of our urban forest, will continue to be supported by the nine BP BirthPlace forests as they mature in coming years. The legacy of these forests will span generations as parents - and grandparents - are able to watch their children grow with the trees
To locate the BP BirthPlace Forest for your child's year, please see the list of forests below.
Forest locations
2001: Elliston Park (17 Ave. & 60 St. S.E.) - 7,600 trees planted and 4,306 babies registered.
2002: Silver Springs (Silver Springs Gate N.W.) - 7,000 trees planted and 3,445 babies registered.
2003: McCall Lake Golf Course (1600 32 Ave. N.E.) - 6,000 trees planted and 4,090 babies registered.
Note: the closure of the McCall Lake Golf Course and subsequent development plans will not affect the BP BirthPlace Forest.
2004: Blackfoot (59 Ave. & Burbank Rd. S.E.)- 6,000 trees planted and 3,616 babies registered.
2005: McCall Lookout (38 Ave. & 11A St. N.E.) - 5,500 trees planted and 3,975 babies registered.
2006: Heritage Grove (5900 Deerfoot Tr. S.E.) - 5,500 trees planted and 3,681 babies registered.
Note: Access to this forest is along the Province's Deerfoot Trail road allowance.
2007: Beddington / Confluence Park (300 Beddington Tr. N.E.) - 6,000 trees planted and 4,495 babies registered.
2008: Fish Creek (154400 Bow Bottom Tr. S.E.) - 6,000 trees planted and 3,034 babies registered.
2009: Sue Higgins Park (Deerfoot Tr. & Southland Dr. S.E.) - 4,500 trees planted and 3,014 babies registered.