Hikers across Vancouver Island say they've been finding entire forests with dying salal. No one knows why it's dying but the ramifications could be serious.

Salal bushes observed to be very dry and dying in British Columbia.

One of B.C.'s most abundant plants is in trouble: patches of hardy salal plants are turning up brown, crispy and dying.

Late blooming Laughing Berry (Gaultheria shallon) in Metlakatla

The ‘persistent and widespread decline’ of the province’s official tree is due to drier, California-like summer droughts of two to three months.

The Tongass Forest in southeast Alaska, a temperate rain forest, is experiencing record-low precipitation and severe drought conditions, impacting community hydroelectricity production.

This ubiquitous shrub of the Pacific Northwest is dying. Some scientists theorize that a disease or fungus could be the culprit, while others point to this past winter’s unusually dry weather.