Every summer I get calls from homeowners with dying trees hoping for an answer and a miracle. More often than not, the problem is due to construction damage to the trees which occurred five to fifteen years before the owners noticed a problem. In this first picture you can see that several inches of soil have been moved. Those few inches were home to a large portion of the root systems for the trees on this home site.
This tree happens to be on the edge of the property, and it was sorely wounded by the earth moving.
Here you can see the dead top of the tree. All you can do now is take it down and replace it with a new tree.
As I inspect trees in these altered sites I see lots of oozy places which are manifestations of various root rots which infected the trees when the wounding occurred. You can also see exit holes from borers which thrive on these compromised trees.
This is a stump of a dead hickory. Click on the photo to enlarge it, then inspect the width of the rings as the tree declined after the home was built. There is no magic treatment for trees sliding down the slippery slope. You have to plan ahead when you build so you don't lose your trees later.
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