Help with advice on taking care of this tree

[raron455]

First time on the forum seeking some arborist advice, I have never seen a tree do this. Here in Texas the weather can get wild, we did have a flash freeze last year maybe that is what caused this but not sure. What I have is the tree in my front yard started growing again in the spring but it looks like it started growing around a dead tree. My question is,

-Can I cut these branches off that have no growth?

-Do I just leave the tree alone and maybe it will recover next year?

-If I do need to cut the branches off, how close to the trunk do I need to cut them?

Any advice would greatly be appreciated, I am a very skilled mechanic, but know nothing about maintaining my trees, and I dont want to mess up and kill it’ll.

I am attaching some pictures of the tree,,

Thanks

Ronnie

 

[Raintree]

I'm not sure what that tree is, some close ups of the leaves would be helpful.
If I were to guess, it may be an Ash tree in the process of succumbing to EAB. If this is so then it's a removal.

 

[raron455]

Here are some pics I just took,,

 

[Raintree]

Velvet (Arizona) Ash is my guess.
According to the EAB maps the insect is in the eastern half of Texas.

 

[Stihl a grasshopper]

I have a similar looking tree at my house (and in my area) in Southeast Texas. During the freeze last year, we had about 10 days of temps ranging from 6-15 degrees which is very low for here since some years it doesn't freeze at all. All the wood on the tree smaller than about 8" never came back. I just assumed that it died from the temperatures the way tips of citrus may when it gets too cold. All the larger parts of the tree sprouted back profusely, but I'm not too sure about the tree growing back to anything worth keeping.

 

[Stone824]

I would also agree it is EAB in both your situations. The emerald ash borer generally bores into branches or tree stocks that at 3-6 inches to lay their eegs. So most of the time they kill any healthy branches but as a last ditch effort the tree will re sucker lower down the trunk as it tries to survive. It would definitely be a removal recommendation by most arborists as the EAB will almost always continue feeding on a tree until it dies and the treatment for EAB is reletivly expensive and you must continue to do it for the rest of the trees life. You can try to prune off any dead branches and let it resucker to get a few more years of life but i would cut it down and plant something new in its place.

 

[pining_fir_yew]

This is damage from just the last growing season - or was the die back gradual - even limb by limb? Texas reported similar damage to Ash trees after the Feb. 2021 freeze. Typically, with sudden decline like you are describing, I would lean toward the culprit being environmental, a wilt (like verticillium), or herbicidal. It's not unusual for EAB to kill a medium ash in 2 years, but the damage seen here is like a perfect halo..after watching the ash in Michigan all die, I find the damage here subtly unusual for EAB damage.

Was this tree seemingly healthy before the extreme weather? If so, EAB do love a nice healthy host. If not, the extreme weather may have been too much for the tree's already vulnerable state to endure.

Keep your eyes sharp for D shaped holes next spring - though not a definitive negative, it will be an affirmative positive ID for at least one culprit. The lack of extensive wood pecker activity in the pictures is a second hint that it's not EAB, but environmental. The waterspout sucker growth is extensive, and while it is more commonly seen around the base of the tree with EAB, it can be a sign that the tree is putting forth a last ditch effort to account for the loss in the upper canopy (among other things).

My vote is that it's a result of the freeze on a tree that was already coping with other stresses. Though, I would love some close ups of that root flare...