Oak wilt or something else?

[Justin Williams]

Hello everyone, I'm glad I found this site and I hope someone can help me figure out what's going on.

I have a large oak tree in my back yard that towers above my 2 story house. It was very healthy when we moved in 5 years ago. I had it trimmed in late summer 2014. The next summer the leaves came back very spotty and fell off early. Hoping it was just shock from the trim or something i gave it another year. This summer it did not produce any leaves but very tiny leaves on just one of the many branches. We had our city's arborist department look at it, but the guy simply drove by my house and didnt even look at the tree (in my back yard) and declared it oak wilt.

It seemed like a pretty clear cut case but here is the kicker, i have a smaller japanese maple in my back yard and its always been very healthy and lush, this year it barely came in. Displaying similar symptoms to the oak.

My yard was also flooding after rains for the last 2 years. Water would sit for days and we got many really heavy rains during this time.

Could both of the trees have gotten too much water? I would hate to spend 6 grand to get these trees taken out if there is hope. They are a big reason we bought this house.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[BC WetCoast]

When was this pic taken? If it is recently, then it doesn't appear like there is much hope.

A flooded yard could be a problem, what happens is the water fills up the small air pockets in the soil and the root cells cannot respire (they are growing and like any biological cell, need to eliminate waste material in this case CO2, which they do into the adjacent soil.) and the root hairs die.

I don't know where you got the 6 grand removal price from. It doesn't look like a 6 grand job to me, more like $2500, unless branches have to be dragged through your house.

 

[Justin Williams]

The picture was from yesterday.. We got a handful of quotes and the highest was $8000. Im going to seek out more quotes this week. I really hate to take this tree down, but it seems there is no hope for it.

 

[BC WetCoast]

If those are your quotes, then there must be more to the tree than what I can see in the photo.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

That's a humongous tree and looks like it's pretty close to your house.
The jap. maple looks like it has too much mulch, imo.

 

[jackjcc]

Water logged soil for days repeatedly is near a death sentence for mature oaks. The picture makes it seem as though you should have decent drainage.

What is all that straw from? Did seed your lawn? Regrade it at all?


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