Treeseer, Treeco, Ekko, the rest, thanks for your responses. The links that Treeco sent, were very helpful. As far as salt goes, the tree is far enough away from the roadway to make the issue na, as far as the site goes, they had added a flowerbed around the trunk of the tree, however the soil has only been raised about three inches, and they used a potting soil. Granted probably not the best idea for a tree, but I think far from devastating.
I think Treeco hit it pretty well. Zoe said she would post some pictures of the samples I took. The discoloration did not seem to be the color of the photos in the link, but I am guessing the tree is far enough along that even the fungus is drying up due to lack of nutrients, thus turning a dark brown, rather than the green given in the examples.
As far as affecting the other trees on their lot, I believe there are multiple problems. I asked Zoe again to post a close up of the bark on one of her ash trees, I think is invaded by EAB, although I did not see any of the bugs themselves, the boring in the bark seemed pretty indicative of the type of damage done by EAB. The walnut seemed to be just shaded out in some areas due to a robust canopy on some of the trees around it. Overall condition I thought of the walnut was pretty good, just some lower dead ones.
Thanks again for your posts, and if Zoe posts those pictures please give me your opinions. I value your input highly.
Thanx,
Red
