I have been in my house for 20 years. When we moved in, one of the first things that my neighbor said to me was a remark about the amount of leaves that I get on my property, and please keep in mind we moved in in Apr.

Over the years I have had to have trees pruned or removed to makes room for the oaks to continue to grow and spread.

In the past year we have noticed some die back and in the spring we saw that we had lost another tree which was dying from the top down. About a month later we saw another do the exact same thing and then another. I have had tree surgeons out and they have no explanation. I did research online and the only thing that seems to fit is that fact that there is a new unidentified tree disease that is being called "sudden oak death". I have now had 4 old growth trees removed from the back of my property, three this week and the biggest tree on the property (150-180 years old judging by its size) will need to come out next spring. I am losing chestnut oaks and black oaks and it seems to be an issue throughout the area.

Anyone else having any oak problems?

 

Ken;

When I lived in the Cinnaminson, about 20 miles from you, our neighborhood streets were lined with pin oaks that had been planted when the area was developed in the early 60's. I had 3 along our front property line and 2 on the back line. Around year 2000 the oaks in town started slowly dieing ....it takes about 5 years for a tree to completely die. When I moved to Massachusetts in the Spring of 2010 I had lost one of the trees in the back [it was cut down in 2006] and two of the trees in front were in distress and would be dead on one or two more years. Most of the other oaks on my street were either dead or in the process of dieing.

I was told that it's caused by an insect that lays its eggs on the leaves. Take a look at a leaf. If it has galls or cankers on it you've got the same problem. The infection eventually starts to clog the tree's capillary system and slowly kills the tree starting at the end of the branches and usually, but not always, at the top of the tree.

It's sad to hear.....your neighborhood is nicely landscaped.

 

Zippy, we lost several trees in our old house in Va over the years. The tree surgeon could find no reason for them to die, ie, no insect infestation or disease. He said he'd learned over the years that just like humans, trees have a life span.

 

We have lost several oaks here at work. The local city tree dude (I can't spell arborist) said it was from "Oak Blight". He didn't explain how or why but every year we take out one to three trees.

 

We had gall wasps in the Oak just off our deck.
It wasn't real bad but we could tell the tree wasn't healthy.
Then the October blizzard hit and that, as they say, was that.
Most of the Crown split and I had to take it down as chronicled elsewhere in this vintage.(i'm just too maned lazy to go find it.)

 

How the hell can you people lose a tree? Sometimes I lose my keys, and I thought that was bad. But a whole big tree??

 

 

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fi...oakdecline.htm

 

Thanks, I will start looking for the causes they have written about.

 

We are losing a young maple. I am not surprised but will take a leaf in for inspection anyway.