Episode transcript
This is Emergency Tree Longview, and this episode is for the person standing in the back yard looking up at a pine that has more brown in it than it did last month. If you already know the tree is gone and you want it down before it comes down on its own, call us at (903) 500-7845. That's (903) 500-7845. For everyone else, give me about six minutes and you'll be able to tell a healthy pine doing its fall routine from one that is on a clock.
First, know which pine you're looking at
Two pines make up almost all the big trees on Longview lots. Loblolly is the tall one, the one that gets planted, with needles six to nine inches long that come in bundles of three. Shortleaf is the native one that was here before the timber companies, with shorter needles, three to five inches, mostly in bundles of two. Both shed the same way and both get hit by the same beetles. The reason it matters is size. A loblolly on an older lot in Spring Hill or Pine Tree can be a hundred feet tall, and that is a different problem than a thirty-foot ornamental.
Normal shedding versus a real warning
Every fall, pines drop their oldest needles. Those are the ones closest to the trunk, on the inside of the branch. They go yellow, then brown, then they fall, usually late September through November. If the tips of the branches are still green, that tree is fine. It's just cleaning house.
The pattern to worry about runs the other direction. Browning that starts at the tips, on this year's growth. A whole top going red while the bottom is still green. Or the entire crown fading to a rusty brown and staying that way. That last one is not a maybe. Once the whole crown has turned, the tree is dead, and Texas A&M Forest Service puts a dead pine at six to ten months before it goes brittle.
What to look for on the trunk
Walk up to the bark. If you see reddish brown sawdust packed into the crevices, or piled at the base like somebody spilled cinnamon, that's boring dust from bark beetles, and it's the most reliable early sign there is. You may also see little pitch tubes, popcorn-sized blobs of resin where the tree tried to push a beetle out. In a hard drought the tree may not have the sap pressure to make them, so no pitch tubes does not mean no beetles.
There are two beetle families doing the damage here. Southern pine beetle is the one that makes the news, and it can take healthy trees when the population spikes. But in a normal year around Gregg County, the more common culprit is the Ips engraver beetle. There are three Ips species in East Texas, and they tend to work from the top of the tree down, which is why a dying pine here so often shows a red top with green lower limbs. Ips beetles are also a stress follower. A lightning strike, a bad drought summer, construction that cut roots, even a big limb torn off in a storm, and Ips find that tree within days.
One more sign most people miss. Woodpeckers. If a pileated woodpecker has started flaking bark off the upper trunk in sheets, there are larvae under there. The bird found the beetles before you did.
Why our soil and our summers make this worse
East Texas red clay is the other half of the story. It holds water all winter, which is hard on pine roots, and then it dries and cracks in August, which is harder. A summer like 2011 stressed pines across the whole region, and Texas A&M Forest Service estimated that drought killed somewhere around three hundred million trees statewide. Beetle outbreaks follow drought years because the trees can't defend themselves, and in our heat Ips can run through several generations in a single summer. That's how you get a row of dead pines along a fence line in Kilgore or Hallsville instead of one tree at random.
There's no spray that saves a pine once beetles are in it. What you can do is get an infested tree down and off the property fast, because the beetles leave it to attack the next pine over.
Not every dying pine is beetles. Tan or white shelf-shaped fungus at the base of the trunk, tough and rubbery, is a conk, and it means root rot is already established. A tree with root rot can look mostly green and still go over at the base in a wind a sound tree would ride out.
What it costs to wait
A pine that is still sound can be climbed and brought down in sections. A brittle pine cannot be climbed safely, so the same tree needs a bucket truck or a crane, and the price follows the equipment. In the Longview area a big loblolly removal typically runs fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars and up, and brittle pushes it toward the top of that range or past it. Catching it while it's still climbable is the cheap version.
What to do right now
Check whether the brown is on the inside of the branches or on the tips. Look at the bark for boring dust and the base for conks. Note how close the tree is to the house, the driveway, or a line. If you see a real sign, call now instead of waiting through another season. The number is (903) 500-7845. Again, (903) 500-7845. This has been Emergency Tree Longview. We'll help you read the tree, and we'll tell you if it's fine.