Forester: Tree should survive

"It looks like it will survive," Vancouver's urban forester Charles Ray said after his first look at the city's damaged Old Apple Tree. "But it will be a lot different."

Ray and Nick Redmond, city urban forestry specialist, were wrapping up a visit Wednesday afternoon to Old Apple Tree Park, assessing the damage caused when two of the tree's three major limbs came down over the weekend.

While the two damaged limbs are pretty much hanging by threads from the trunk and can't be reattached, they haven't wilted. That's a good sign, said Ray.

"The two downed branches are not wilting. On the underside of the limbs, near the bark, there is enough connective tissue to move nutrients through," Ray said.

If the two limbs had completely torn away, "With this heat and wind, they would have wilted," said Ray, who had been out of town until Wednesday.

And, the season's new growth indicates that the root system is healthy, Redmond said.

Working with Collier Arbor Care and the National Park Service, the city foresters will proceed very cautiously, Ray said.