If you're somewhere on the east coast, move the tree and yourself to Colorado: a location about 6000 ft should suffice but they really prefer to be higher. Otherwise, sue your landscaper for planting it? Sorry to be facetious, but look around where you live. If you don't see a lot of healthy looking mature blue spruces, there's no reason yours is going to be an exception. This kind of dieback is absolutely typical. At the very least it looks like it might be planted too low.

Thanks for your advice guys. We live between Utica and Syracuse in a forgotten little town in upstate New York. We bought this beautiful piece of property last summer. The people we bought it from had added lots of varied landscaping over the years. Unfortunately, it seems that it will cost us a ton of money to properly maintain all of it. I wish the previous owners had not chosen to plant such a large row of Blue Spruce trees (50 of them!). I guess they were all the rage back in the late '80s. It's kind of a pity that they didn't go with Red Spruce since they are native to the area and probably less susceptible to needle cast around here. Besides the Blue Spruce needle cast disease, we have a dying Catalpa tree (verticillium wilt), dying Cottonwood tree (old age, lots of dead branches) and a large silver maple tree (next to the house) that will all probably need to come down soon. With regard to the horse chestnut seedling that retained its leaves, Ken was right in that it actually shed them once the snow finally melted here in late March. The seedling went dormant for a few weeks, and we thought it might have died. However, it actually sprouted new leaves again! Nature truly is awesome and works in mysterious ways.

yeah it was burlapped when i planted it. and the landscaper who brought it here treated it like crap, throwing it around and damaging the rootball. That "new growth" you see is actually from last year. it hasn't put anything out this year. last years growth is weird...its very short and the needles aren't completely vertical, it's almost stunted in appearance up close. Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated.

It's not a USDA office. It's the University of California Cooperative Extension Service. You can locate your county's office by using this interactive map: http://npic.orst.edu/pest/countyext.htm Take more than "a sample" -- take a picture of the tree and its surroundings and also take an image of only the tree. Be ready to discuss the tree's history, including how often you watered it, the method (drip; handheld hose; sprinkler; or . . . ), and more.