Fire Blight is a progressive disease of apple and peach tress and and susceptible roses. There is no registered treatment for FB so removal and burning of infected branches is the only control method. The sooner the better is best but great care must be made not to spread the bacteria, present in the ooze, from touching other parts of the tree. Pruning out should be done after leaf fall.

I can't quite figure out what you mean but the sooner the better, but then you say pruning out should be done after leaf fall.

Does that mean, if 1/3 of the tree drops its leaves cut that portion and burn it, then leave the rest until it drops its leaves in the fall?

And more specifically WILL the fire blight spread to other trees? Will it only spread if it touches other trees? If birds, insects get the bateria and fly to other trees?

Whats the scoop....I can't even get arborists from the top tree services in wisconsin to give me a straight answer.

Cherries don't get fireblight. Neither do peaches.

But both get bacterial blight/canker/

Requires yearly dormant sprays, and pruning during dry weather to remove damaged//dead wood.

Even so, the tree gradually declines over many years.

Isn't fire blight a bacterial blight? The arborist that diagnosed the tree said it was Fire blight.

Even so, if its bacterial blight, will it spread? Do I need to cut it down now?

As stated above, cherries do not get fire blight (which is a bacterial infection named erwinia) quite often and under the proper environmental and or biological conditions they will come down with a fungal infection which could easily be mis identified as fire blight, the visual symptoms are quite similar. quite often the interior smaller 'spur growths' will wilt over, turn brown/black and look kind of burnt/slimy.
this is a fungal infection called brown rot of stone fruits and is quite often treatable. Me thinks you should get a second (third?) opinion before draggin that baby to the burn pile. its impossible to tell for sure with out seeing the tree (maybe a pic would help) and if branches are completely wilted and the wood just under the bark is brown and not green and they have no visible signs of life then they should be pruned off spritzing your pruning tools with rubbing alcohol inbetween cuts so as not to spread the disease further. but don't remove any limbs unless you are completely sure they are absolutely dead. if this is what you have I have seen trees recover from this quite nicely within 2 or 3 years. follow the link below and see if this looks like what your dealing with (scroll down a little) and if it looks right there are fungicides registered to control this problem: Azoxystrobin, chlorothalonil, copper, mancozeb, propicanazole, and thiophanate methyl. fungicide apps really should be done in the spring esp. when the tree is in flower, thats when the fungus is active. but the sterilized pruning is key. if you can get me a picture we may be able to come up with another theory.

Good luck,
CT. Arborist, Ron R.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brown Rot symptoms on Cherry

I still haven't been able to figure out how to post pictures on here.

The very few leaves that have fallen are bascially dark brown and curled.

When it first leafed out there was a large limb that didn't leaf out with the exception of a few leaves, those few leaves then browned up and fell. Its now a bare limb.

The first arborist said its a "type" of wilt or blight. The second arborist said it was fire blight.

There really aren't any infected leaves, except a few that I can see 25 ft in the air. Otherwise they are bare branches (about 30% of the crown).

How quickly will the limb actually die? 2 weeks ago I checked the limb and it was green under the various stems.

alright that info helps... this is a rather mature tree well established I'm assuming with what sounds like individual whole branch failure. I'm assuming that the branches that do have leaves look quite healthy? if thats the case my next question would be if there has been any construction, digging, or change of soil grade in the past 2 or three years?
ron

Wow, your actually more helpful and asking more questions then these bozos that came to my house.

There are a few scattered branches throughout the crown that aren't full of leaves, but yes otherwise the other 70% looks healthy.

With the exception of the few scattered brancheds missing leaves its one huge limb that is bare, but there are few branches that do have leaves on the limb (imagine there are 3 main limbs of the tree).

Early spring last year I planted a couple shrubs in front of the tree. I did cut a few small roots. The tree was healthy all year last year.

I did prune 2 large branches late winter / early spring this year (might have been 10% of the crown).

Lastly both arborists mentioned there are borers in the main stems where there is orange, what looks like sap.

OP wrote "what looks like sap."

And that could be a sign of the bacterial blight/canker.

The challenge with an individual cherry tree is to figure out which of the two most common diseases they get -- bacterial blight/canker or brown rot. Then, to complicate matters, one tree can have both disease. (sigh)

Where do you live? That might give folks clues as to which is more likely for your tree.

It's true that mechanical ad/or root damage can take out a branch at a time. But so, too, can the above diseases, especially bacterial blight.

Alright a few more pieces to the puzzle. your arborists mentioned borer and orange sap. the primary borer that attacks cherry trees is the peach tree borer which almost always affects the very bottom of the trunk of the tree (maybe 12 or less inches from ground level) now there are occasionally borers or bark beetles that will enter the tree higher up but in my experience they are secondary or advantageous pests usually affecting trees or individual limbs that are already highly stressed/damaged due to some other cause. That being said, there are other factors that can cause this orange sap type of bleeding...one is called gummosis which is an abiotic (meaning not caused by insect or disease) issue where sap is exuded out of the trees lenticiles, these are the small horizontal "dashes" in the trees bark. this can be caused by mechanical (physical) or winter injury, excess fertilization, drought stress etc. and there is no cure other than to keep the tree as healthy as possible and let it grow out of it. The other cause for this bleeding is, as mentioned above, bacterial canker, the most common of which is called Pseudomonas syringae. one way to potentially tell whether you have gumosis or bacterial canker is to go to the affected (bleeding) area and press firmly with your thumbs and feel for a soft or sunken area immediatley around the sap. if it feels soft/mushy or sunkin in then you are probably dealing with a bacterial canker, if not it may simply be gummosis. this little push test is not 100% accurate of coarse but sometimes it works.
So first off, where are these " borer holes" located (down at ground level or higher up in the tree?)
Second, does this orange sap appear to be coming out of the lenticiles or is it just coming straight out of the bark.
Third, is the area around the bleeding soft/mushy or sunken in.

I don't think planting a few bushes around the tree is of any real concern, but another thing that i forgot to ask before is if by any chance the soil around that tree has for any reason been compacted lately (within the past 2 or 3 years) like heavy vehicles driving near it etc.

hope this helps,
Ron R.

Here is a link that might be useful: bacterial canker

Well the sap is very hard, I haven't try to push down on it though. It seems to be coming out the of the bark, but also old pruning wounds.

It has been a cool, long and wet spring this year. Althought a light frost, I did see some one morning on June 1st! I'm in a Milwaukee suburb by the way.

The sap that the arborists pointed out as to where the boerers where is 5ft off the ground. I didn't really see holes per say, although I did find one, vs the others didn't really looke like holes, more like pinhole leaks in the bark. Also, some of the bark is pealing (lower larger limbs), not sure if thats due to age of the tree

The soil has been undisturbed. I did take pictures, but can't figure out how to post.