By late August the rock under an arbutus at Neck Point is littered with curls of bark, thin as paper and the colour of cinnamon. The trunk above them looks freshly skinned, smooth and olive green where the old layer has come away. Nothing is wrong with the tree. Every summer the arbutus tree on Vancouver Island sheds its outer bark this way, and the new layer, as the Times Colonist once described it, can run anywhere from bright chartreuse to deep red depending on its age.
The Times Colonist has placed the northern edge of the island's arbutus around Parksville, a short drive up the coast, and Nanaimo's waterfront parks hold some of the easiest trees to find without leaving town. They also hold some of the sickest looking, which is where most local questions about the species start.
Where arbutus grows around Nanaimo
The Government of British Columbia's tree species compendium describes arbutus as growing, very frequently with Douglas-fir, on rock outcrops along the shoreline of southern and eastern Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast and the Gulf Islands. It favours warm-facing, water-deficient sites, which in practice means bluffs and headlands over salt water. Less often it mixes with lodgepole pine, and rarely with Garry oak.
That last pairing is rare across the province, but Nanaimo's north-end shore has it. Naturalist Dave Ingram's survey of Pipers Lagoon Park describes a mixed Garry oak and arbutus meadow on the headland, with Pacific sanicle and broad-leaved stonecrop on the rock. His write-up of Neck Point Park, a little further along the shore, describes the loop trail running through "a mix of Garry oak and arbutus trees". The City of Nanaimo's parks fact sheet on arbutus decline uses a photograph of a tree at Jack Point.
The province's Conservation Data Centre tracks one plant community built around the tree, arbutus with hairy manzanita, and ranks it S1S2 in British Columbia, meaning critically imperilled to imperilled. Its range, on the record's figures, covers about 6,910 square kilometres of the dry south coast. The record names residential development as the main threat, specifically because scenic viewpoints near towns add to real estate values. It rates climate change as a smaller worry, because the dominant plants tolerate drought, while warning that an extreme summer drought could still kill woody species in some spots. Anyone who has walked the bluffs above Pipers Lagoon, where the city describes "dramatic, gnarly Garry Oak meadows", has seen where that pressure points.
How a broadleaf keeps its leaves on dry rock
Arbutus is the only broad-leaved evergreen tree native to British Columbia, according to the provincial compendium. Its leathery leaves stay on through winter, and the old ones drop after the new set has grown. The City of Nanaimo's fact sheet treats spotted leaves that fall after the new growth as normal.
The rest of its design is about surviving drought on thin soil. The compendium lists its preferred moisture as very dry to moderately dry and its nutrient needs as low; it tolerates acid, leached, very poor soils and is absent from waterlogged ground. Its roots form ericoid mycorrhizae, a partnership with soil fungi, and by about 50 years a tree often has a well-developed burl at the root crown. It can also sprout from numerous dormant buds at or just above that crown, and the sprouts grow fast.
Sizes vary by source. The compendium describes a tall shrub to medium-sized tree under 30 metres; the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team gives 6 to 30 metres, often with several stems; and the City of Nanaimo's fact sheet says 25 metres with a trunk 60 centimetres across. All three agree on the shape: a leaning, crooked stem and an irregular, umbrella-like crown. Longevity is occasionally more than 500 years.
The tree has two clear weaknesses. The compendium rates fire as a high risk and calls arbutus very sensitive to frost. It is not grown for timber, and the province values scattered native trees and stands for their scenery.
Flowers, berries and the birds that follow them
The Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team lists April and May as flowering time, with drooping clusters of white or pinkish, fragrant flowers. Those flowers feed pollinating insects. The fruit follows in September and October as orange to red berries about a centimetre across, which the provincial compendium classes botanically as a drupe and says a young tree first produces at about five years old.
Birds do most of the planting. The compendium notes that birds and animals spread the seed, and The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, quoted in a 2021 Times Colonist report, names robins, waxwings, thrushes and woodpeckers among the species that rely on the berries. Natural regeneration is high in the open and low in shade, provided the seed lands on exposed mineral soil, and the compendium calls arbutus a pioneer on bare rock outcrops.
Why so many Nanaimo arbutus look sick
The blackened leaves and grey, dull bark that worry people are real, and they are not new. In March 2021 the Times Colonist reported damaged trees from Sooke north to Parksville and quoted Andy McKinnon, a retired forester and biologist from Metchosin: "Everywhere I've looked, the arbutus are in a bad state." McKinnon blamed leaf blight, a fungus the species has lived with for centuries, striking trees already stressed by drought, eroding soil and human disturbance. He added that a similar episode about five years earlier had left a lot of dead arbutus.
The City of Nanaimo's fact sheet frames the problem the same way, as stress first and disease second. Its list of stresses includes urbanization, with reduced growing space, traffic and pollution; climate change; the possible suppression of wildfire; root disturbance; competition; shading; and drought. On the disease side it cites research counting more than 21 pathogenic fungi on arbutus, and names a root rot in the same genus as the organism behind sudden oak death, alongside two canker fungi. Its conclusion is honest: there is no clear answer to the exact cause.
The list holds an apparent paradox. The provincial compendium rates fire as a high risk to arbutus, yet the city counts the suppression of wildfire among the stresses on it. The sheet does not spell out the link. The nearest explanation in its own list is competition and shading, and the compendium notes that arbutus regenerates poorly in low light and seldom forms closed stands. Whether fewer fires has meant more shade on Nanaimo's bluffs is not something either document measures.
The provincial compendium is more relaxed, rating fungi as a moderate risk and "not a serious or major concern", with leaf spots, leaf rust, tar spot, cankers and root disease on the list. The two documents are not really in conflict. One describes the species across its range; the other describes urban trees in a city that keeps building on the rock they grow from.
Watering, pruning and the bylaw
On care, the advice splits. The City of Nanaimo tells residents not to prune, because any wound is an entry point for disease, and not to irrigate established trees, especially in summer, because watering encourages shallow roots that are short-lived and less resilient than deep ones. Andrew Connell, an arborist with the District of Saanich quoted in the 2021 Times Colonist piece, recommended the opposite on water, telling owners to water arbutus during dry periods while also cutting back on pruning. Both agree on planting seedlings; Connell said arbutus do not survive transplanting well.
The difference may come down to the tree. A mature arbutus that has always lived on dry rock has the deep roots the city wants to protect. A young tree in a new subdivision, with its roots under fill and lawn, is a different case, and that is where an arborist's site visit earns its fee.
Cutting is governed by the city's Tree Protection Bylaw 2013 No. 7126, which the city's tree care page still links. Its brochure says a permit is needed to remove more than four trees with trunks of 6 cm or more, and that an arbutus counts as a significant landmark tree once its diameter reaches 50 cm. Garry oak qualifies at 10 cm. The Times Colonist noted in 2021 that Saanich protects arbutus from 4 cm, a threshold more than ten times lower than Nanaimo's.
What to look for on a walk
If you walk the headland at Pipers Lagoon in late summer, look at the trunks before the canopy. Fresh green patches mean bark that has just peeled, which is a sign of a working tree. Bark gone grey or black is, in Connell's words, "an advanced onset" of disease, and leaves that discolour and fall before the new ones have opened are the sign the city's fact sheet treats as serious. The research the city cites found the largest and oldest trees dying at the highest rates.
Look at the ground too. Arbutus seedlings need open, sunny mineral soil, so the best places to find young trees are the edges of rock where moss has worn away, not the shade under mature canopy. One of the easiest places to look is the headland the provincial government bought in 1983 and deeded to the city as Pipers Lagoon Park.
What none of the sources settles is how many arbutus Nanaimo has, or how many it has lost. The city's fact sheet says the population has been declining at an alarming rate for several years, but it gives no count, and no public inventory of the city's arbutus turned up for this article.
Questions
Is arbutus the same tree as Pacific madrone?
Yes. Arbutus menziesii is called arbutus in British Columbia and Pacific madrone or madrona in Washington, Oregon and California. The City of Nanaimo's own fact sheet uses both names.
Does the arbutus lose its leaves in winter?
No. It is the only broad-leaved evergreen tree native to British Columbia, so the leathery leaves stay on through winter. Old leaves are shed after the new growth appears, which is why some yellowing and leaf drop in early summer is normal.
Why is the bark on an arbutus peeling?
Peeling is part of the tree's normal cycle. The thin reddish-brown bark comes away in papery flakes and strips in summer and exposes smooth olive-green bark underneath; on mature trees it eventually becomes scaly.
How long do arbutus trees live?
The provincial tree species compendium says arbutus occasionally lives more than 500 years. A tree usually starts fruiting at about five years old and often has a large burl at its root crown by about 50.
Can you grow an arbutus in a Nanaimo garden?
Seedlings can be planted in full sun on well-drained ground, and the City of Nanaimo's fact sheet encourages planting more of them. Arborists warn that established trees transplant poorly, so a small seedling stands a better chance than a nursery tree moved at a large size.
Do you need a permit to cut down an arbutus in Nanaimo?
It depends on size and number. Under the city's tree bylaw an arbutus with a trunk diameter of 50 cm or more is a significant tree, and removing more than four trees of 6 cm or larger requires a permit. The city's urban forestry staff can confirm whether a specific tree is covered.
Are the black spots on arbutus leaves a sign the tree is dying?
Not usually. Leaf spot fungi are common on arbutus and mostly appear in fall and winter on leaves that will be shed anyway. The city's guidance treats leaves that discolour and drop before the new leaves appear as the more worrying sign, since that can point to root rot or canker.
Should you water an arbutus in summer?
Advice differs. The City of Nanaimo's fact sheet says not to irrigate established trees, especially in summer, while a District of Saanich arborist quoted in 2021 recommended watering during dry periods. A tree that grew up on dry rock is the case where the city's caution matters most.
What eats arbutus berries?
Robins, waxwings, thrushes and woodpeckers feed on the orange to red berries, according to The Land Conservancy of British Columbia as quoted by the Times Colonist. The fruit ripens in September and October.
Where is the nearest place to Nanaimo to see an arbutus and Garry oak meadow?
Pipers Lagoon Park in north Nanaimo has a mixed Garry oak and arbutus meadow on its rocky headland. Nearby Neck Point Park has a similar mix along its loop trail.
Sources
- Arbutus (Tree species compendium), Government of British Columbia, 2025-10-31
- Arbutus Tree Decline, City of Nanaimo, Parks
- Your City of Nanaimo Tree Management and Protection Bylaw (brochure), City of Nanaimo
- Home Tree Care, City of Nanaimo, 2026-06-02
- Island's stately arbutus trees wither in seasons of change, Times Colonist, 2021-03-27
- Arbutus menziesii, Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team
- Arbutus menziesii / Arctostaphylos columbiana (ecological community record), B.C. Conservation Data Centre, Government of British Columbia, 2021-03-31
- Plants of Pipers Lagoon Park, Island Nature (Dave Ingram), 2012-02-01
- Neck Point Nature Walk, Island Nature (Dave Ingram), 2013-01-13
- Picture a Park: Pipers Lagoon Park, City of Nanaimo, 2016-02-24
