Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) mortality from drought stress

Iain McKechnie wrote:

Increased prevalence of drought stressed red cedar trees along the east coast of Vancouver island including Parksville to Victoria. Branches at the tops of cedars are 'drooping' or turning yellow and crimson orange. It seems to be happening to trees in more sun exposed areas near exposed bedrock whereas mortality/stress seems less intense in more densely wooded areas. As per normal for old growth cedar, the stress seems to appear first at the top of trees with branches that become more widely spaced and or absent at the top of the tree followed by increased stages of yellowing. This effect seems to eventually engulfing the whole tree leading to mortality. I observed hundreds of individual examples, but do not have many photographs as these observations are mostly made from a car driving along the island highway, but my observations extend to other areas of greater Victoria, Duncan, Metchosin, Nanaimo, Parksville, and Langford.

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