7 Signs a Tree Needs to Come Down

Most failures give you warning. Here is what to look for before the wind finds it first.

Most tree failures give you months or years of warning. Here is what to look for, roughly in order of how urgently you should act.

1. Mushrooms or conks at the base

This is the one to take seriously. Fungal fruiting bodies at the root flare or on the lower trunk mean the fungus has already consumed a significant amount of the wood inside. By the time you see mushrooms, the decay is well established. A tree can look completely healthy up top and be hollow at the base. Get it assessed, not eventually, now.

2. A lean that changed

A tree that has leaned the same way its whole life is usually fine. A tree that is leaning more than it was, especially with cracked or heaved soil on the opposite side of the lean, is failing at the root plate. That is an emergency. Check after every big windstorm.

3. Bare branches in the summer

Walk out in July. If a third or more of the canopy has no leaves, the tree is in serious decline. Some species recover from partial dieback, most do not once it is that far along.

4. Bark falling off in sheets

Loose, sloughing bark on a section of trunk means the cambium underneath is dead. If it is one small area the tree may compartmentalize it. If it wraps a third or more of the circumference, the tree is girdling itself.

5. A crack or split in the main trunk

Vertical cracks, especially at the union where two large stems meet, mean the tree is coming apart. Codominant stems with included bark, meaning two trunks growing tightly together with bark pinched between them, are the classic failure point. Sometimes these can be cabled and saved. Sometimes they cannot.

6. Hollow trunk

A hollow tree is not automatically doomed. Trees are strongest in their outer wood, and a hollow trunk with a solid shell can stand for decades. The rough guideline arborists use is that a tree needs about a third of its radius in sound wood. Less than that and it is a hazard. Do not guess this from the outside, it needs a real assessment.

7. Carpenter ants or heavy insect activity

Carpenter ants do not eat live wood. If you see a steady column of them going in and out of the trunk, they have found rotten wood inside to nest in. They are a symptom, not the cause, but they are a reliable indicator that there is decay you cannot see.

What is not a reason to remove a tree

• It drops leaves, seeds, or sap. That is a tree being a tree.
• It is close to the house. Proximity alone is not a hazard. Condition is.
• Some dead branches. Normal on mature trees. Deadwooding costs a fraction of removal.
• Roots in the lawn. Annoying, rarely dangerous, and cutting them will destabilize the tree.
• A guy knocked on your door and said so. Get a second opinion from someone who is not selling you the removal.

If you are not sure which category your tree is in, that is exactly what a free estimate is for. We would rather prune it now and remove it in ten years.