Regina, Saskatchewan - Geography and Climate

Geography and Climate

The city is situated on a broad, flat, treeless and largely waterless plain – at the time of its founding, a matter of national scandal and notoriety as to corrupt dealings at the time, since it is immediately adjacent to amply watered and treed rolling parklands.

There is an abundance of parks and greenspaces: all of its trees — some 300,000 — shrubs and other plants were hand-planted. As in other prairie cities, American elms were planted in front yards in residential neighbourhoods and on boulevards along major traffic arteries and are the dominant species in the urban forest.

In recent years the pattern of primary and high school grounds being acreages of barren prairie sports grounds has been re-thought and such grounds have been landscaped with artificial hills and parks. Newer residential subdivisions in the northwest and southeast have, instead of spring runoff storm sewers, decorative landscaped lagoons.

The streetscape is now endangered by Dutch elm disease, which has spread through North America from the eastern seaboard and has now reached the Canadian prairies; for the time being it is controlled by intense pest management programs and species not susceptible to the disease are being planted; the disease has the potential to wipe out Regina's entire elm population.