In summer of 2024, we received a call from a client in the Bay Creek neighborhood asking if we could do anything to help their old Oak. It was a 51” diameter Bur Oak that is estimated to be over 250 years old. The tree had undergone some root damage when the city re-did the street and the sidewalk under the tree 7 years prior. Since then, the tree had been slowly declining. When we came out for the first time, about half of the tree’s canopy had died, with the dead portions concentrated on the side of the tree facing the street.
The process to try to restore mature trees in decline is a long, slow, expensive process, and there are never any guarantees of success. Decline in tree is typically caused by accumulative stressors, and since trees can’t tell us what is wrong with them, it can be a process to parse out what is all contributing to the decline and what we can do about it. Success depends on many factors, including the vascular health of the tree, soil conditions, available funds, follow up care, and time. There are scenarios where you can do everything right and the tree still won’t make it because of underlying issues with the tree’s health that we may not know of. After a lengthy discussion with the homeowner, we moved ahead with a plan.
That Summer, we gave the tree a preventative fungicide treatment, as well as a systemic insecticide to stabilize the tree. This would prevent issues like Oak Wilt or Two-lined Chestnut Borer from taking advantage of an already-weakened tree. Then, once winter set in, we took on the task of removing the dead portions of the canopy. As you might imagine, a 51” diameter tree has a rather large canopy, and the pruning took two days with our full crew. We removed all of the dead canopy and left as much of the living tissues as we could. Once the treatments were administered and the tree was pruned, we just had to wait. It was now up to the tree to respond to the pruning.
Thankfully, Spring of 2025 came and the tree leafed out beautifully. It has put on some considerable new growth and the foliage is shinier, denser, and darker green than before. The homeowner has been dutifully watering the tree whenever we are short on rain, and it seems we are well on our way to recovery. Treatments will continue for several years to protect the tree as it re-grows a canopy and builds some strength back. We will continue to monitor the tree’s progress as time goes on.
