I have a couple and don't think I have seen that. I'll ask a couple questions:

Does the foliage as a whole look a bit thin or like it does not have a ton of water pressure holding it up?

What has your weather been like lately? Our spring was damp, since mid summer it has been dry and now here comes a run of 90 degree days.

Any evidence of borer damage on the stems?

i was going to say.. if it is just a few spots like that.. snip them out and be done with it..

but behind such.. i see some straight normal needles...

and many that are curled...

what about herbicide drift??? who's been spraying your lawn.. and with what???

pic of the whole might help

ken

Several years ago I had one that looked like that. Actually, foliage went to a very light cream/white first then charred out sections of tree and seemed stunted after that. At the time, I was ready to blame multiple factors as a possibility (a freak Spring heat wave with wind, neighbor's poor next door, driveway salt from winter, pesticide from neighbors who seem to love spraying, etc..). I eventually removed the tree and planted another in a different locale w.o. Any issues. See if it pulls out first, it might.

P.S., I do know they are very sensitive to salts (ice melt in Winter, pools?)

You could go to your local source, county extension agent and have him diagnose your issues with this conifer.

That would be the quickest way to resolve this.

This conifer doesn't look healthy and just snipping a few dead pieces of foliage off, personally, I don't think is the cure.

Dave

Thanks for the replies, all. Here is a bit more information based on your questions and comments.

Very wet spring ... relatively cool summer ... is heating up now, but the brown areas occurred before that.

Foliage doesn't seem thin, but I agree that there are quite a few curled needles, which I don't think is typical. (As you can tell, I know nothing about this stuff.)

I don't know what borer damage would look like, but just gaging from the words, I don't think so, because I don't see any unusual damage on the stems and trunks.

My lawn guy is using standard stuff on the grass, and he did spray for Japanese Beetles. I'm not sure what he used. I sprayed them myself last year several times using standard Ortho stuff and didn't have any issues, but maybe he's using something that might cause an issue. I will check with him.

I took a few more pics ... the one below is of one of the trees. You can see the brown spots, but overall they don't look too bad. I noticed the spots when I was looking down on them from the deck one evening.

I will do a search and see if I have a county extension agent.

Thanks again!

And here's a pic of all three (with the weeping bald cypress in the background).

I would remove the lawn grass from under the tree to the perimeter of the drip line. I never really use pesticides here, but I wonder if a 'weed and feed' product could be a cause (if in fact those pesticides were used here on your lawn).

That's what I thought, some weed killer product used on the lawn. Weed killers are called herbicides, not pesticides. Easy mistrake to make. ;-)
Mike

Well, herbicides are apparently considered 'pesticides' by the EPA.

Here is a link that might be useful: EPA

Hmmm ... I've been considering installing borders around the trees to help control the zoysia ... which is the excuse I'm using for ignoring the mulch ;-) ... and I could easily go all the way out to the drip line. That would make it easier to mow around them also1

Looking ahead, though, the trees will keep expanding (hopefully!), and if the products that I'm using are causing problems then I will also need to address the root cause (no pun intended).

Interesting link ... I would not have taken the definition of "pesticide" to be that general ...

Thanks a bunch, folks ... I really appreciate the feedback!

(p.s., I have also sent a message to the extension office, with a link to this thread)

Thanks njoasis, I stand corrected. I guess a pest is a pest even if it's not a bug.
Mike

To locate your county's Extension Service office, use this link
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Aside note -
Yes, pesticide is an umbrella term that covers all such materials, among them insecticides, miticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and more.

Here is a link that might be useful: locate your county's Extension Service office