Edworthy Park is a city park located in the Northwest section of Calgary along the south shore of the

Bow River The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These w ...

. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses the length of the park. It was named after Thomas Edworthy, who immigrated to the Calgary area in 1883 from

Devon, England Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is a ...

. The park has a surface of , and contains over of hiking and biking trails, part of the

Bow River pathway The Bow River pathway is a pathway system developed along the banks of the Bow River in the city of Calgary. It contains a network of pedestrian and bicycle paths connecting parks on both sides of the river. The pathway is used for cycl ...

Nature

The trees that can be found in Edworthy Park include

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

with

aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

and

balsam poplar ''Populus balsamifera'', commonly called balsam poplar, bam, bamtree, eastern balsam-poplar, hackmatack, tacamahac poplar, tacamahaca, is a tree species in the balsam poplar species group in the poplar genus, ''Populus.'' The genus name ''Populu ...

. There is also some grassland and mixed shrubland, and an escarpment where

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce ('' Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * '' Picea engelmannii'', native to the ...

dominates. With the spruce is an isolated population of

Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

, some more than 400 years old.

History

Edworthy Park is built on the former site of a sandstone quarry. The land was purchased by the City of Calgary in 1962 for the development of the park. Prior to the mid-1990s, the City of Calgary intended to eventually replace Edworthy Park with an extension of the Shaganappi Trail freeway. The extension would have linked Shaganappi Trail, Sarcee Trail, and Bow Trail at a major interchange that would take up most of the southwest part of Edworthy Park. During development of the Calgary Transportation Plan (also known as "The Go Plan") in 1995, public opposition to the roadway led to it being removed from future consideration.

Gallery

File:Edworthy Park Bridge.JPG, Harry Boothman Bridge from Edworthy Park to Shaganappi

References

External links

City of Calgary - Edworthy Park
{{Alberta parks Parks in Calgary