Dying Trees

[Stinky The Clown]

Has anyone else noticed a lot of dying trees? I am in Maryland and they're frighteningly common. Trees dropping leaves in the summer and just dying. Not any one kind of tree either. A few years back, at our old house, we lost an American Elm. Of course it was on borrowed time, as are all American Elms, but that loss was Dutch Elm Disease. The trees we see now are all kinds. Some ash trees due to an ash borer that has been in the area but now we see okay and poplars and evergreens, dogwoods and fruit trees. At the old house, ornamentals that had been in the neighborhood for years are dead. At the new house, where we have nothing but natural wooded landscaping, trees are dying all over the area.

My theory, given the non selective nature of the dying, is climate change. What were once cool season trees in Zone 6/7 (old place) and 5/6 (new place) are being heat stressed by not only the temperatures, but the seasonal durations.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[GreenEyedLefty]

1. Yes.

There is a line of three very tall pines next to our driveway (but on our neighbor's property) that are slowly dying. My brother in law diagnosed them with some kind of virus that slowly kills them (he has a masters in forestry). They have really lost a lot of needles over the last year and we have to discuss with our neighbor what to do with them because they are going to be hazardous to both of our properties.

It's kind of sad to see majestic trees die like that. I believe that climate change is a big culprit.

[livetohike]

2. Yes. Here in PA we are losing the ash trees, beech trees

to some kind of blight and hemlocks to the wooly aldegid. I live next to a state park. It's scary seeing this happen. When the hemlocks go, this area will look like a blast area 😥.

[bettyellen]

3. The park nearest me lost all its gorgeous old chestnuts - I noticed the last one had only one branch

going this year and it's whithered to nothing. Hurricane Sandy flooded the park pretty badly and most started dying after that flood, but now the last is a goner. Such beautiful trees, the squirrels loved them so much. Bums me out.

[Ligyron]

17. Chestnut makes great lumber for furniture.

Armoires and rustic stuff in particular. The wormy wood has a certain character.

[In_The_Wind]

4. Yes. The Black Lace Elderberry are dropping lower leaves.

The crown (tip top) of the branches are producing new leaves and flowers.

[bigtree]

5. my backyard

...tons of plants regularly watered, but a tree graveyard in woodland-like yard - 5 MAJOR trees dead or near dead - 4 already gone - last few years has been the worst.

[Major Nikon]

6. It probably has more to do with timing

What I see around here is when a new housing edition goes up, about 10-15 years later you see a lot of dead trees. This is because the varietals that were planted are ill suited to the area, they were planted in the wrong spot, or they are simply fast growing trees that have short lives. As these trees die out, they are eventually replaced by varietals that are better suited for the application.

DED has wiped out significant elm populations in the northeast and this tends to come in cycles with specific local areas being hit harder than others. I suspect you may be going through the replacement learning cycle similar to the one described above.

Personally I prefer to plant native trees that are disease resistant when possible, or other trees that have a great track record for the area. The local county extension office is a great resource and much better than getting advice from nurseries who are just in the business of making a sale.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. The old house is 45 years old.

None of the trees are young except those that occurred naturally.

At the new house, none of the trees were planted. All are native trees that naturally propagated.

My renters at the old house are worried about a 50-60 foot dead ash tree that partially overhangs a storage shed. Since I am there every day because that's where my business is, I am keeping an eye on it. I trimmed the large overhanging branch just this past weekend. I'm hoping to avoid the several thousand dollar cost of removing the tree. If it were to lean where I think it will, no worry. It will fall in a wooded area. If it leans toward the house, all bets are off. This tree was here when we bought the house in 1980.

[Major Nikon]

9. Dead trees should be removed as soon as it's practical

They can harbor diseases that can affect other trees and in the case of a very large tree, dead branches often come down in high winds and can kill or injure people or cause significant property damage even a significant distance away. Sometimes they just come down on a clear day after a storm. As a bit of trivia, our governor here in Texas was paralyzed by a falling tree branch and sued the homeowner for $10 million. Later on he became a champion for tort reform that would have prevented him from getting the settlement he got. Naturally he's a Republican, and an asshole.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Try looking up a small, local sawmill ...

If the tree is not rotted out, they may take it down at no cost in return for keeping the wood.

These are often one- or two-man operations, local business only, and sometimes they can be hard to find. But ash is a very useful wood, and if they can transport the wood without violating state regs, it's a win for them.

[dalton99a]

8. Killing off the old stuff to make room for the new

[GregD]

10. Dutch Elm Disease

In San Rafael (Marin County, just north of San Francisco) we lost an Elm tree this Summer. The tree service that we worked with tell us that a lot of Elm trees are succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease

[NutmegYankee]

12. I think my old crab apple is dying.

Second year of gypsy moth damage, but only about 35% defoliated. It started dropping leaves in July and is now nearly bare. I'll give it the winter, but I think it might not leave out next spring. The tree is only 50.

[Shrike47]

13. In our part of Oregon (Eugene) all the landscaping birch trees are dying.

There is a Native that is disease resistant that's hanging on, but the yard trees are going.

[modrepub]

14. Passenger Pigeon?

What does this extinct bird have to do with this you might ask? The bird has been gone so long that there (probably) isn't anyone alive who has seen the bird in the wild, though there are place names to remind some that they haven't entirely been erased from our collective memories.

This bird was largely responsible for balance in the eastern forests prior to its extinction; a product of it being a cheap food source made more widely available by the expanding railroads after the Civil War. It's range and diet of different seeds made it an ideal mechanism to distribute them widely ensuring some type of genetic diversity within the forests. Their droppings were also a good source of fertilizer and probably helped forests to regenerate (much like forest fires). Their feeding habits probably allowed different plant species to "migrate" over long distances as the climate changed. Without these birds I believe the forests in the east are "sicker" due to less genetic diversity. Now there is no biological mechanism to allow the different forest species to migrate as climate changes like they did with the waxing and waning of the large glacial ice sheets during the Pleistocene. This was a point I remember being brought up during my college years; the trees are going to need help "moving" to adjust to climate change. Just my thoughts.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Something weird is happening in my yard.

Over the past 4 years, we have lost a young willow, a flowering plum, the dogwood, all in different parts of the yard.
I could accept the dogwood being old, but it looked very healthy one year and did not bloom teh next, and a dogwood 2 houses up the street also suddenly died this late spring. Dogwoods grow all over the place down here.

Weirder, a tall mimosa tree in the back yard refused to bloom at all this spring, I had to cut it down because the arching branch on one side was dangerous if it fell.
We lost 2 sumac trees in the past 2 years. 3 rose bushes died, all in different places in the yard.

next door neighbor lost a crepe myrtle, a young magnolia, and a eucalyptus over a 2 year span.
Before that, we had no problems in the past 10 years here.


Our temps have been about 10 degrees cooler this year, that should not be enough to kill so many trees, temps are variable down here from one year to the next.

[mnhtnbb]

16. Yes. The woman who bought the little house we had for several years after our fire

asked me a year ago about a tree that had died in the front yard. I don't remember what kind it was, but I told her I was surprised that
it just up and died!

The worst thing was that when she had a tree surgeon come and remove the dead tree, they messed up and damaged a 100 year old oak
in the front yard which meant it had to also be taken down. That was really sad and shouldn't have happened.

[Luciferous]

18. Yes. The neighbors and I cut down 3 trees a couple of weeks ago. We have another 2 in the back that

probably need to be taken down as well.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. it's nature's way of telling you something's wrong.

[shanti]

21. hee

i see what you did there.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. and now I've got an earworm

[shanti]

23. me too!

thanks...i think.

[dembotoz]

20. read an article a few years back that seed packets were changing-time to plant etc

heard from a woman who worked at a nursery that times are a changing

the gop may not know
but the plants know

[Luz]

24. Its oak wilt down here. Killing large numbers and spreading.

Oak wilt is a fungal disease affecting oak trees caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fagacearum. Symptoms vary by tree species, but generally consist of leaf discoloration, wilt, defoliation, and death. Wikipedia

[LeftInTX]

31. Texas?

[Luz]

34. Yes, the hill country.

[LeftInTX]

35. San Antonio - in my neighborhood

Someone with a large lot brought infested firewood. The oak wilt center started in 2007. It was traveling via backyards, but this past winter, it crossed the street.

[Luz]

37. It's really nasty stuff. I didn't know it had made it to SA.

Some parts of the hill country its just been devastating. It's so sad to see those great trees wilting, almost like they've melted.

[Skittles]

25. yes

with even relatively mild storms they start falling apart

[Warpy]

26. I'm out west where the bark beetles have denuded a lot of north facing mountainside.

Aspen trees still seem to be doing well.

As the climate warms and dries, likely a lot of land once suitable for trees will become more like savannah. If the natural grasses aren't permitted to grow, it will become desert very quickly.

[Glorfindel]

27. Here in north Georgia, it's the hemlocks that are dying, and it's so SAD

They are my favorite tree, of no commercial value - don't even make good firewood - and they're being killed by an imported pest.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi96N253evVAhUJMBoKHdRWDy0QjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.romanticasheville.com%2Fhemlocks.htm&psig=AFQjCNEGPlRMdmvU-jhTIT-ndW9KIMcV9g&ust=1503521835181826

[riversedge]

28. a few months ago I said to my sister-Is this tree dying? Many of the leaves were black and falling

off. the falling leaves happened all summer although it slowed up. Now most trees are already turning fall colors==well lots of them are. We had a late freeze we attributed it too. But why the leaves? they were not buds. In mid Wisconsin

[LesleyMoTN]

29. Yup, in Tennessee too

We've had leaves falling on our deck for the last month. We've already removed several large trees that were dying, and there are a couple more in the back yard that aren't looking good. I'm hoping it's just because they are old and weren't well maintained in the past. Either that or my brown thumb is killing them off.

Seriously though, climate change makes sense. We had lost quite a few trees and shrubs at our previous home in Texas after relentless heat and drought. Sad.

[Stinky The Clown]

32. (smooch)

[gvstn]

30. I just heard on NPR where all trees were dying in an area.

This link isn't to what heard about Oregon but it does say it is drought related, along with specific insects.

[raven mad]

33. There are spruce beetles, mostly in Southeast and South Central Alaska -

but as the Interior's temperature gets warmer, and stays here longer? We're seeing a few of them here.

Lose your trees? Lose the planet.

[LeftInTX]

36. Give the trees another season or two

Drought and heat stressed trees will often drop leaves.

You can also contact a certified arborist to come out and assess your trees. Many will provide free estimates.

Weed and feed products can cause horrific damage to trees. Neighbor's use of the product can effect your trees. Sometimes consumers don't know that they are using a weed and feed product because the product labeling isn't clear. Common names are Scott's Turf Builder Plus.

Also some broadleaf weed killers can also damage trees. 2,4-D has been known to damage trees.