It depends on how much damage was done, how lose to the tree the trench was dug, how old the tree is. It may be that the tree is very stressed and will bounce back next year, especially with septic water fertilizing and healing it. I would give it at least until fall or maybe next spring to see if it recovers or continues to die. There's no real need to cut it down now, unless you have other reasons to do so.

What did you decide on your tree? I'm thinking my oak tree is dead or dying but can't tell. Is about 6-7 years old and has suffered a lot of stress and trauma. We bought our house two years ago and it's the only tree we have. About two months after we moved in, it blew almost completely over with regular texas winds. We put it back up and gave it more soil and root stimulator. The previous owner later told me The tree had blown over while she lived here for four years and it had been staked, but they removed the stakes to sell the house. It's always had very small limbs and no new growth except a few leaves on the main trunk. It doesn't have any main branches...just straight up with some small beaches about a third of the way down from the top. Last august a storm came that pulled the whole tree...root ball and all out of the ground and dropped it in the neighbors yard. That's when I noticed it had no main roots coming out...just a solid root ball. We redug the hole larger, replanted it with fresh soil, fertilizer and root stimulator and staked it. It got more steady and I watered it regularly with a slow run from our hose. I took the stakes off this spring an now it is leaning again, still with no new growth. I think it's had too much stress and isnt going to grow, but my husband says it's fine. Thoughts?

I have left it up so far. It still looks pretty much the same as it did when I originally posted. I don't know how old it is, pretty old I guess, its a very large tree. My main concern with it is that it is large enough to cause serious damage if it were to fall on the house. I am considering cutting the limbs that are closest to the house, but the dropping of limbs seems to have slowed down. I know that sometimes trees and plants take time to heal, and I don't mind leaving them in place to see what they do, its just the size and proximity to the house that really concern me with this one.

With your tree, I would probably leave it and just see what it does next spring. We have had smaller trees before that appeared dead and then put back out the following spring. In fact, we had a couple of plum trees that my husband bought that looked dead last year, but they all put back out this year.

I have a large oak tree that died between last summer and this spring. No leaves appeared and it is definitely dead. There's been no trauma to it that I know of. Does anyone know what could have happened? Is there a way to tell why it died?

Look at the base of the trunk for sawdust, holes in the wood, bark sluffing off, jelly-like oozing places. Could well have been borers that killed it. They killed an old oak of ours, probably had been working on it for a few years but we never checked so didn't see it, and it did like yours--seemed to be ok one summer, never leafed out in the spring. It's a good idea to check all your trees for borers, especially oaks so you can treat them and stop the damage before the tree is dead..