I have had three oak trees die this year since spring. Two are very big ones. I see no sign of a lighting strike and no sap running out. Two of them are close but one is 50 yards away. Green leaves in the spring now dead. They are in the heavily wooded part of my property and no other trees show any problems. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Dave

I know I saw a lot of BIG oak trees die after hurricanes. I believe it is a result of the high winds breaking a lot of their roots. Have you had any tornadoes in those areas over the past few years?

You live close to Harvey Updyke?

I had a big oak tree to fall back in 2009. Tree had green leaves and no signs of stress. Some type of bug had eaten up through the middle. Couldn't see the cavity until it fell. Got a new deck and fence but very blessed no one was outside when it fell.

Elkhunter you may be on to something. No tornadoes but two of these trees are 50 feet above the rest of the canopy. The soil here close to Oak Mountain is shallow and rocky. The root balls don't go very deep here. I will have fire wood for a while.

Carpenter ants will kill them quick. My guess is when you put a saw to them you will see a swarm of those suckers coming out. I have had three killed by them.

Mark is there any way to stop them from killing other trees?

Is oak wilt a problem in Alabama? It has destroyed many a oak tree in Texas. My neighbor lost one last that had to be over 200 years old.

We've lost 100's of oaks on our place over the last decade, but they don't die in 6 months. It takes them about 3-5 years to die once you see the onset of the problems. The first sign is loss of leaves on the uppermost branches.

Fur any idea what causes it?

Old age and heart rot.

Trees get old and die just like we do. They could just be over mature and through with their life cycle. Could be bugs, fungus, lightening strikes or any number of things.

No. This is a disease of some sort. When the trees die the outside 1/3 of the log is spongy looking and has some sort of vein looking system growing in it. The inner 2/3 of the trees are hard as a rock.

It's primarily killing Red Oak varieities.

I've had a good many die this year on different properties. These are less than 10" trees and had no insect problems. Two of them died in less than a week no signs of any issue till they just died.