Dieback in the upper crown
Bare branch tips at the top, while the lower canopy still leafs out, is usually the first visible signal.
Oak trees
Oak trees are our specialty
Sonoma County's oaks are the trees we know best — and the ones least forgiving of a bad decision.
Why oaks get their own page
An oak grows slowly, compartmentalises damage slowly, and shows stress years after the cause. A mistake made on an oak in one afternoon can take a decade to reveal itself — and by then it is usually not fixable.
That is why the same pruning approach that suits a fast-growing ornamental is wrong here: conservative cuts, made in the right place at the right time of year, with the tree's long-term structure in mind.
- Conservative, structure-first pruning rather than heavy thinning
- Cuts made at the branch collar so the tree can compartmentalise
- Hazard evaluation on mature oaks near houses and driveways
- Deep root feeding for oaks under drought or construction stress
- Diagnosis where dieback or decline has already started
Signs worth a look
What to watch for on a mature oak
Decay on the main trunk
Soft areas, cavities or fungal brackets mean the structural wood is already compromised.
Included bark at a fork
Bark growing into a union instead of wood — a weak attachment that eventually splits, often in the first big wind.
Recent grade changes
Soil added over or scraped away from the root zone is one of the most common ways a healthy oak is killed slowly.
Construction nearby
Trenching and compaction inside the root zone. Consider the tree before the build, not after.
Sudden heavy seed drop
Sometimes just a mast year — sometimes a stress response. Worth a look rather than a guess.
Worried about an oak?
Free estimate. If it needs nothing, that is what we will tell you.