What is going on with the trees?

[Danielle Masters]

I live on Granger. Last spring we had a maple removed from our tree lawn. It was perfectly healthy and then is suddenly died. The tree next door is doing the same thing now. Our tree on our other tree lawn is now dying. I counted 20 dying trees on my street alone. Several will be removed in the next week.

I have driven around Lakewood and have seen many (mostly maples I think) dying. I know trees die but this seems extreme.

We also had a large ash tree removed from our backyard this spring. It wasn't infested yet but it had a large split in it and it wasn't safe as it was next to our home. I am very sad about the loss of these trees. Does the city have any idea what is going on? Is there another blight? I'd post a picture but I am unsure of how to do it on here.

[Bill Burnett]

They may have been ash trees. The city took down a tree across the street from me that I thought looked like a maple. It too died suddenly and I walked over and asked the men why they thought it died and they told me it was the borer. That ash tree sure looked like the maple tree on my tree lawn. The city has identified almost 500 ash trees which they are cutting down as fast as they can. If there ever is a blight that attacks maple trees Lakewood will be in trouble.

[Danielle Masters]

They aren't ash trees. They are maples. This will be our third lost tree in two years, two maples and one ash.

[John Palmer]

The City is removing some of the Ash trees, and treating some to delay their death by a few years so they don't have to remove them all at one time. It's most municipalities decision to remove all Ash trees as opposed to treating them over an extended period. Purely a $$ decision.

As far as tree deaths, the extremely harsh winter is likely the culprit. I've been seeing this all over the area. Some tree species are more susceptible to the extreme cold (flowering Cherries and Plums (the Prunus species)) and more maples than I would have expected. Any tree that is under stress will be more susceptible to extreme conditions. They just don't have the resources to recover. The near record low temperatures can damage the vascular tissue that the tree uses for transport, or actually pull moisture and (relative) warmth from the tree and kill it by dessication (drying out). Since the tree doesn't start moving large quantities of moisture via transpiration until the leaves are out, the tree can actually die from wilting during the winter and early spring.

I'm telling people to try to wait and see what happens after this year. Next spring will tell us which trees are recovering from the damage and which don't. I'm recommending people not do anything to their trees. Don't prune yet (unless it's a safety issue or it's obvious the branch has been dead for multiple years), don't fertilize (a flush of new growth may not be what the tree needs at this time), just allow them to recover. Watering is good, but we've been getting enough rain so far this year.

Just consider your tree in the ICU right now. Just give them time to heal. Hopefully they will.