I'm wondering the same thing here in Montana. 2 neighbors across the street have brown dead dried up conifers. There are others on my street as well, and I've seen them while driving thru town. I'm anxious to see what the problem is.

The deciduous trees have faired fairly well over the last few years but struggled not long ago. I see many mugo, arborvitae, ponderosa, junipers that are struggling over the past 6 months and many are drought tolerant. It still is very dry. I want everything to thrive.

My arborvitae is rusted on the North side of the tree, I thought it was sun scald? Strange.

Thanks Barb!! That was such helpful, and timely information. I was wondering about my dwarf Alberta Spruce, as I noticed when I was watering it yesterday that it has a lot of burned spots on one side and falling needles. I was worried it didn't like the spot I transplanted it to last spring, but sounds like it more than likely is the dryness (I tried to water it periodically through the winter, but may not have been enough. I gave it a good soaking, so I'll have to stay on that to help it along!

Marj

In addition to the many pests we know about, my wife came home tonight and told me the properties I consult for should be inspected for tussock moth. Apparently some folks on the Front Range are finding concerning numbers of tussock moth, which is bad for short-needled conifers here. Word of warning.

Well, hello there, Dan. It's good to hear from you!

Here's a link from CSU on Tussock moth. I guess I'll be leaving spiders in the conifers this year!

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05542.html

greenkpr,

Watering is about all we can do to help the trees along. I'd hate to see trees get removed if they have a chance to pull through this. I know It's hard to have an ugly tree in a pretty urban landscape, but I'd encourage people to really check the trees before removing. Scratch test the branches and trunk, see if the branches are flexible and look for good buds on the tips. I'll be pruning out dead branches over the next month to 6 weeks, when the buds start to extend and you can really tell what's dead or alive.

Gjmancini,

North side damage could be wind burn in addition to temp swing damage.

Marj,

Alberta spruce here don't take full sun and wind very well. If yours is sited in a part shade protected area, I'd just keep it well watered.

Hey Barb, good to see your voice.

Lots of reports coming in this winter from weather damage, often as described upthread. I'm seeing a lot of half-dead to all-dead pine tops, which may result in forked branching in the future.

Also, spruce are seeing an increase in ips, there is a nematode affecting pines, aforementioned tussock moth, a mite on pine tops, and of course Mountain Pine Beetle is down here now. The extreme variability of our weather over the past couple of years after relatively benign weather for a number of years has likely helped lead to these insects spreading.

The pine in my front yard died, totally and completely, about a year ago, apparently from pine beetle. I'm wondering now if our weather this past winter, the extreme temperature shifts, might weaken/stress the other pines in this immediate area and make them much more susceptible to the beetles, which, it would seem, are very much here! I guess I'll get my answer in the next couple years, but, boy, it's sure gonna look barren if all or most of them die!

I'm planning to put a humongous Miscanthus near where the pine was, and TreeBarb is giving me a pretty cool conifer to replace the pine that will stay much narrower, which I'm planning to put much closer to the sidewalk/street--but she'd need to tell you what it is, since she's the Tree Person!

Skybird

P.S. Nice to see you're able to make it past the Guard Tower here at houzz, Dan!

P.P.S. Here's a pic of my no-longer-there pine--in a snow storm! I don't seem to have any pics of it when it wasn't being snowed on!!! RIP, pretty tree!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/j50zHJUp7occOoAIthXZFv6s-IMVlkvC9mxRaV1guoo?feat=directlink

Skybird,

She was a beauty, may she rest in peace, or at least crackle nicely in the fireplace! I'm not positive but have come to think it was a Scots pine, pinus sylvestris. Your new baby is a pinus cembra 'Chalet', chosen for it's grace, narrow width and need for 20 inches of precip a year. It'll be much happier in an irrigated lawn than most pines. It's grafted onto limber pine, (pinus flexilis) rootstock.

I am for sure a Tree person, but am still a grasshopper with much to learn. I'm still thrashing around in the bindweed, lol! We all have our special niche or area of interest when it comes to plants, that's why I love this group.

Much of what I'm spouting here comes from info gleaned from others, peeps at DBG, Planet Conifer on FB and Houzz's Conifer and Trees forums. I'm just sharing to let you know that although our conifers have taken a beating this past 6 months and look like heck, they might still make it.

OT time: Yesterday the better half took my shovels in to be sharpened. That's awesome! Now I'm sitting here, shovel-less, wondering if I could plant a tree with a hand trowel! It's a good thing it's probably too wet to dig.

Glad to have you back, Dan. Please stay away from the Site That Must Not Be Named. ;o)

Thanks Skybird, I'll wager the spring hard freezes two years in a row then the fall event will do much to both conifers and deciduous trees around here, but this last snowstorm brings well over an inch of liquid for most of the Front Range, so will blunt some stress. And barb, I won't be going back there for sure. :o)