VANCOUVER -- Scores of tinder-dry trees in an East Vancouver park may not survive what city staff are now calling a “severe drought.”

Park Board crews ramped up their watering program this year because of the hot, dry conditions, but it may not be enough to revive about 30 per cent of the several hundred trees that were recently planted in New Brighton Park, say staff.

“We’re in an unprecedented drought for this time of year,” said Nick Page, a biologist with the city. “We’re anticipating we’ll have some loss.”

The trees are in the western end of the park, where the city is trying to re-forest an area that would screen a truck parking lot at the port from fields of view.

Some of the trees are western red cedar that were planted about a year ago and are doing particularly poorly. But most of the trees are small Douglas fir or other drought-tolerant conifers that were planted in the fall of 2013 as part of the city’s push to plant native trees in parks, said Page.

With more than a year in the ground, their roots are developed and they’re “a little more resilient” than those of newly planted conifers, he said.

But despite that, and visits from park board’s watering trucks, many of the trees are steadily losing what little green colour they have left.

Part of the problem is that the area the trees are planted on has poor soil and a history of industrial use, said Page.

“It’s been a challenge to establish those trees, mainly because of soil quality,” he said. “You’ve kind of got the worst of both worlds: waterlogged soil all winter and very dry soils in the summer.”

Last month, John Coupar, the chairman of the park board, asked residents to lend a hand by watering young street trees in their area. He said they require around 10 to 20 litres of water twice a week given the heat.

Page said it may be difficult for residents to help out with the trees in New Brighton because they’re far from any homes, but it could help.

“We would definitely not discourage people from helping out how they can,” he said.

Page said the young trees were inexpensive, relative to larger street trees, and were planted with the expectation that some would not survive.

“We put them at a fairly high density,” Page said. “If all of them were to survive we’d have to thin them to get them to grow properly. They’re just too close together and that’s by design.”

But it was not expected that so many would be on the verge of dying of drought.

Page, who said he had not seen the trees at New Brighton for more than a week, cautioned that young trees can sometimes bounce back. “It’s still relatively early in the season. My inspections of other trees in similar contexts, they’re actually doing fairly well, some of them.”

mrobinson@vancouversun.com

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