Not poplars, but Australian eucalypts! This isn’t how they usually look, however; there’s a story to these trees.

They were planted along the river in my home town about 20 years ago as part of a river restoration project.
For about three months to March this year, this section of the river was used as a roost by Little Red Flying-foxes - http://www.pbase.com/donfranklin/flyingfox .
We guesstimate that the roost peaked at perhaps 100,000 individuals, which at 450 g each would weigh 45 tonnes.
The weight dragged the branches they roosted on down, then broke many off.
These Rose Gums were completely stripped of branches, leaving just pole-like trunks which resprouted vigorously from buds hidden in or under the bark after the food supply waned and the flying-foxes departed.