Reading Your Trees

Trees communicate what's happening inside them through visible signals — you just need to know what to look at. Walk your yard with intent every 90 days and you'll catch most problems years earlier than most homeowners.

Leaves

• Color — off-color yellowing out of season suggests nutrient deficiency, drought stress, or root damage.
• Size — smaller-than-usual leaves in spring is a sign of stress, often from the previous year.
• Timing — late leaf-out or early leaf drop both suggest declining vigor.
• Distribution — leaves only on outer branches, with a thin interior, is a classic decline pattern.

Bark

• Sloughing bark in large sheets across the trunk = usually dead or dying.
• Vertical cracks and seams — especially those that open when the tree sways — are structural defects.
• Bulges or oozing sap suggest internal damage or fungal activity.
• Pitch tubes on pines (popcorn-sized resin blobs) mean beetle attack — often fatal.

Canopy

• Density — a full, dense canopy is a healthy sign. Thinning year over year is decline.
• Deadwood — small dead twigs are normal; large dead limbs are a hazard.
• Sudden lean — a canopy that appears to tilt after a storm.
• Sudden Limb Drop — mostly a live oak phenomenon: perfectly leafy large limbs falling on calm days. Points to internal stress; get an evaluation.

Root flare and base

• Visible root flare = good.
• Mushrooms or conks at the base = decay.
• Ants (usually a symptom, not a cause) = rot already present.
• Soil heave = root plate movement.

Put it together

One red flag doesn't mean removal. Two or three, combined with a valuable target below, means it's time to get an assessment. The 90-day yard walk takes 15 minutes and saves trees.