Did I murder a black walnut tree?

[Ramone]

I really need the opinions of some tree experts.
Please forgive me for the length of my post but I really need to give you a good idea of my overall situation;

We live in an area in the pacific northwest where black walnut trees thrive like weeds;literally! You see them everywhere growing wild along fencelines, building foundations etc.

My neighbor has one such tree which is quite old (I'd suspect 50 years or so as it's about 50 feet tall or so and quite big around) and grows right up against the fence (on his side of course).

The tree has never been trimmed or maintained in any way and was just allowed to grow wild...so much that about 3 or 4 branches had grown well over my driveway, 2 of which began to droop down and scrape against the top of my car when I would pull into my driveway.

I finally called a tree service out to cut back those limbs which were becoming a problem.

I should add that my neighbor WAS aware that I was planning to have this done as he even came out and asked the tree service guy a few questions about how he was going to cut the tree when he was on my property giving the estimate about 2 weeks before the work was to be done.

This was last spring and as this is a huge tree with LOTS of branches we are only talking abot a very tiny percentage of branches being trimmed off.

OK~so now fast forward a year to NOW; The tree didn't leaf out as usual and it looks like most of the upper branches are dead.

My neighbor is convinced that I killed his tree by having those branches cut back last spring. I called the tree service and they told me that they had probably only cut back less than an eighth of the branches hardly enough to send a healthy tree into shock. They felt that this was probably just a coincidence.

Now I can't honestly say that the tree was NOT healthy before I had the trimming done BUT I do know that for years there had been branches falling off of the tree occasionally and moss growing on many parts of it.

So...what do you think?

Did I kill my neighbor's tree?

Would cutting 3 or 4 branches off of an otherwise healthy tree of this size kill it?

Thank you so much for your input!

[treeclimber165]

Standard rule of thumb for Arborists is to not remove more than 1/3 of the foliage in a single growing season. I try not to remove more than 1/4 of the foliage on a tree trimming.
Removing limbs that are scraping your car is totally acceptable. I'm certain there were other causes for the tree's decline. If your neighbor wants to try and save the tree, he might call a consulting arborist to come evaluate the tree. But it doesn't sound like he wants to spend any money maintaining the tree.
Here is the link anyway, to find a consulting arborist in your area.
http://www.asca-consultants.org/

[Kneejerk Bombas]

No, trimming a small percentage of a tree's limbs will not kill it.
When a tree dies back from the top, it's very often root damage.
Look carefully at the root zone for clues. Has the grade changed? Has any thing been trenched in(gas, electric, driveway, lawn sprinklers, septic, ect.)? Has anything been spilled or used under the tree(gasoline, salt, paint thinner, ect.)? Examine the root flair. Is there loose bark or other damage? How about soil compaction?
Mature trees often take 5 to 8 years to show effects of root damage. Think carefully, look for clues.
I once killed a tree with my snowmobile. Freakng thing had a gasoline leak that I didn't know about. I parked near a tree, the gas leaked, the tree died. I couldn't figure out why the tree died, until I found the gas leak and remembered where it was parked, next to that now dead tree.

[Jay Banks]

I know this is reaching but, is your driveway (which is on top of the roots) paved or gravel? Did the tree service work from a bucket tree or did they just use a pole pruner?

Bucket trucks are heavy and it may have been the last straw that broke the trees survival.

[tshanefreeman]

Both herbaceous and woody plants can become deficient in moisture for a variety of reason. The obvious being lack of annual precipitation.........

The first symptom of inadequate moisture in the top of a plant is wilting of the leaves and the tips of young shoots. Lack of moisture usually affects all the leaves on one or more branches. The leaves affected first and most severely are those exposed to the afternoon sun and prevailing winds. Older leaves, leaves that are small, thick, and rigid, and most conifer leaves may not wilt visibly, but may turn brown entirely or just at the tips or margins

If growing conditions do not improve and the tree is stressed to the point where all of its energy reserves are used up, the tree could decline to death............. Therefore, how has the last few years been for annual rainfall? Typical or lacking? Drought is much like construction damage in that it can take a long period of time for the visible symptoms to become evident.................. such as a dead tree!

[Ramone]

Thanks for all of your input guys~
I do feel a bit better about the whole thing as it sounds like there could've been a variety of items that could be the cause of the tree's poor condition, my having a few braches cut off being the least of them.

In regard to our rainfall, we did have a slightly lower amount of precipitation this last couple of years but nothing significant.

As far as what the tree service used (bucket tree, pole pruner etc) they only used a ladder as I only had them trim off about four branches which were on the lower part of the tree.

As I mentioned, your input has definitely made me feel better.
I couldn't imagine that cutting four small to medium branches or so off of a monster-size tree would traumatize it but my neighbor was so adamant that the tree was in perfect health and the work done sent it into shock that I was feeling pretty guilty.

He had someone he knows cut all of the dead branches off of the tree yesterday (which means MOST of the tree is now gone) so I'm hoping that we can move forward and forget about the whole thing.

Thanks again to all of you!

[Newfie]

I'll let the tree pros handle the technical stuff, but I'll chime in on your neighbor. He sounds like a jerk and you shouldn't be feeling guilty. Here in Mass it would be his legal obligation to maintain the tree if it was encroaching on your property. He should be thanking you for having the work done.

Whatever the case, don't take the rap for tree murder, maybe 2nd degree treeslaughter. Sentence, time served living next to your neighbor.