Crowsnest Pass expansion has devastating effect on trees
By Lethbridge Herald on October 17, 2025.
David McIntyre
For the Herald
While window shopping in The Pass
I felt the pain of fractured glass
Saw reflecting scenes of senseless loss
Quests for wealth that ignored their cost
I learned of a revered and treasured tree’s recent death before I knew its life was on the line. The tree, huge for its species, lived on main street. It gave life, vitality, and shade to those who stood in its shadow.
The stately old monarch, a living landmark, gorgeous in life and the picture of health, was killed because it grew in the path of a planned walkway. In death, the tree left a stump more than a metre in diameter.
Had the awe-inspiring old tree lived in Calgary, it would have been mapped by the city’s forestry department, its defining data formally recorded. The tree would have been assigned a value, likely in excess of seventy-five thousand dollars. Here in Crowsnest Pass, the tree, living in the path of deemed progress, was seen as a liability.
Earlier this year, I learned that another tree—picture a strikingly old, picturesque Douglas fir on the Crowsnest Pass golf course—had been targeted for removal. As I prepared to step forward in an attempt to save the tree’s life, I discovered I was too late.
Industrial equipment had been brought in and the tree, on the edge of a golf course fairway, had been ripped out of the ground by its roots.
The Crowsnest Pass Golf Club’s grand old Douglas fir, based on my increment borings of similarly sized Douglas-firs in the Crowsnest River valley, is likely to have been at least 400 years of age when it was killed. Regardless of its age, the tree, arresting in life, stood as a profoundly rare and striking example of ancient tree life in the valley. Its cultural and historic worth: priceless.
Because the old Douglas-fir grew within a much younger forest, people viewing the time-battered monarch might assume the weathered, thickly barked sentinel couldn’t possibly outlive the surrounding wildfire-vulnerable forest. This assumption is false.
Years ago, I discovered an old Douglas fir in the headwaters of the Crowsnest River that had lived more than 600 years before wind, fracturing its trunk, claimed its life and brought it down within a forest of much younger trees. That ancient tree, with fire-resistant bark, bore the scars of wind-driven wildfires that, during previous centuries, had consumed the surrounding forest.
The old golf course Douglas fir, had it lived in Calgary, would have been mapped, forest inventoried, and assigned a dollar value. The tree’s worth there: likely in excess of $200,000.
Years ago, I was brought in as a forestry consultant when community plans called for the removal of a large number of trees from Flummerfelt Park. My evaluation of the targeted trees: They were healthy, their presence in the park was priceless. My appraisal saved their lives … for a few years. Later, they were cut down in the name of progress. Had those trees lived in Calgary, it’s my thought their worth would have been assigned at more than $250,000, and they’d be alive today to give added beauty and value to the community.
Three decades ago, I presented the vision that the creation of an arboretum and community park on the 52 acres of land between the Crowsnest River and Highway 3 would provide added beauty and value at modest cost. The concept gained significant support … until a developer came along with a “better” plan, one that, in its sudden death, left the community with the industrially ravaged wasteland that’s on public display today.
Here in the headwaters of the Crowsnest River, I’ve long sought to acquire Government of Alberta protection for what I’ve defined as Alberta’s rarest, most tree-species-rich forest. And, similarly, I’ve tried to create, within the community of Crowsnest Pass, awareness, appreciation, and a dollar-and-sense understanding of the incredible value of living trees to a community.
As Crowsnest Pass attempts to plan its future, I ask that it cease its current expansions into the surrounding fire-prone forest. I ask that it focus on beautifying its downtown core in order to save and capitalize on its inherent—picture-perfect!—sense-of-place beauty and intrigue.
My hope and vision for the community: I believe Crowsnest Pass can best serve society and its own future worth by offering itself as a centre for what might be called catch-and-release tourism. It’s a brand of tourism that capitalizes on quality-of-life experiences, immersion in the rare and captivating cultural and outdoor experiences that are found within a region of rich cultural history and inimitable natural beauty.
As Crowsnest Pass plans its future, I suggest that it look to embrace the powerful vision created by the Burmis Tree as it stands near the community’s eastern gateway on Highway 3. There, the arresting old limber pine, even in death, gives life to a stunning scene showcasing the profound power—and intriguing worth—of a single head-turning tree. Ironically, it’s this iconic tree the Crowsnest Pass Golf Club selected as its beckoning, golf-course-defining logo.
The Burmis Tree, seen to be more than 700 years of age at the time of its death, is known around the world, and is widely viewed as Canada’s most photographed tree.
22-21
a beautifully presented insight.
overlooked, perhaps, assigning the liability cost to the likes of the crowsnest pass clown council and the beneficiaries of pocket lining, and, on another level, the net liability of the likes of smitty and the ucp.
i would stump for a tree over any of the lot that purports to represent the masses.