The reason I speculated about the webworms is that they are not really noticeable unless the webs are close to the ground. If you back up and look at the tree from a distance, and you know what to look for, they can be seen. The walnut worms often fall under the tree, and if you have 3 masses, you will find 100 worms over the course of time. They climb back up the tree, but for a time you will find several individuals under the branches. The OP said nothing about finding any worms at all, so I am assuming none are falling. esh, I have watched bagworms since moving to PA some 30 years ago. Like many insects, they come in cycles, with some years having plagues, and some years having few. In this area, a substantial portion of the tree cover is J. nigra, and a lot of the old farmsteads have J. regia near them. Hickories are not as common, but not rare. There seems to be a feedback loop between J. nigra and the webworms. The years the worms are bad, the leaves are shed earlier, and the shedding starts not long after the webs get going. The defoliation is not caused by the worms eating the leaves, but the tree actually seems to try to starve the worms by losing its leaves. I'm not sure that that is possible, but from my amateur observations, it seems to happen. When I first moved here, one of the 3 trees was a J. nigra, and it also lost the leaves in Sept. (Black Locust and Cherry were the other 2) I planted other trees and shrubs (probably in the neighborhood of 150-200 species trees / shrubs), and the birds showed up. When I started, the most common birds I saw were pigeons, house sparrows and starlings. Now I rarely see those, but many other species have appeared. I noticed that when nuthatches (we call them treecreepers) and chickadees started living here, my webworm problem was cut by 75%. These 2 bird species seem to spend an inordinate amount of time examining the bark of the walnut where webworm eggs (and other leaf predators) hide through the winter. The last few years have seen my tree stay green until the frost, which was something I had never seen before. Trees near town don't share this characteristic, and after the leaves fall, the trees are decorated with grey hanging remains of the nest, with shed skin and frass weighing them down. Sometimes they persist through the winter, the webs holding them tight to the bark. Enemies of the webworms besides the birds? Hurricanes. The years we get a good blow from those winds (every couple of years), a good number of the branches that host the worms are knocked down. It is not uncommon to walk under a walnut after a hurricane and see the ground covered in webs. After they are knocked down en masse, they make their home on the ground, but the grass doesn't support webworms, Before people who go through real hurricanes jump on me, let me say that what we get are winds of 45-50 mph, not hurricanes force winds, but winds from a hurricane. The storms are almost always below hurricane force when the hit Penna., but we get sustained 40-50mph for several hours. Enough to knock the webworms twigs out of the trees.

That is one heck of a split on that poor tree. On one of my silver maples I would call it sun caused. Live oak doesn't do that though if I understand.... Am I seeing right there is a section of bark breaking off on another part as well? Personally I think the tree is going to have an uphill fight. If it was out in the middle of my yard I would leave it. When trees in my yard have exhibited that kind of problem I have removed them if they overhang my parking area, my house, my garage, my shed, my dawn redwood, anything I like. Now I have a kid. Wonder if a kid playing in the yard will make me more cautious. I wish I could grow live oaks in zone 6 and also think the gnarly tree look is cool. What would I do.... Out in the middle of the yard, leave it. I would plant another live oak near its drip line. You say "one of the hurricanes". If the exposed structural wood of this one gets compromised it has to end up on the ground. You might get an early start by planting the replacement. IF it overhangs anything you like, chop her down and start over. Heck, plant two or three replacements if your yard has the room.

Actually the whole house surge suppressor does nothing to help a lightning strike on/through your house. What you've probably installed is a MOV based surge arrestor which means that surge coming through the line will get damped and taken down. So, yes if the strike hits your on-pole transformer it will more than likely minimize the damage to your appliances. However, that case of a house being struck near you and burned down - well, the MOV does nothing for that because you aren't giving the strike an easier path to ground. it will still blow through whatever it is going to go through (trees, houses, etc) until it finds ground. A lot of houses burn down with a lightning strike for whatever reason. Not sure if its the lightning causing the fire or the resultant electrical charge frying everything in its path, but it is an issue when a strike happens. I think people need to understand that it isn't a lightning rod that gives protection. Get a qualified study and get some decent information. I don't see how you can decide that 'lightning rods weren't going to provide enough protection to ensure" your house wouldn't be fried, yet believing that a MOV sink will ??? The 'rods' or air terminals are above the roof line and tied together to down conductors to ground. The question is whether the installer engineered it such that its adequately installed so that the coverage attracts a strike to go that route vs another - not whether it works or not. Now whether you want to pay for it, can afford to pay for it or don't want to pay for it can certainly factor into whether one installs it and I can understand that. But to say that installing a MOV sink will protect yourself over a lightning protection system is a bit absurd. (BTW, an adquate LPS contains a MOV sink as well, but its the other components tied into protecting the entire house) The other components are potential lifesavers as it protects the building- the mov sink only protects the powered items within the building.

Seems to usually be at random, but I have two mildly entertaining/interesting stories that I know of. My previous neighbor once got struck by lightning while washing dishes and I would think that she never did that again during a thunderstorm. At the Biltmore estate in asheville (one of the best places for garden and landscaping inspiration) they have a row of tulip poplars o each side of the fountain (in the front). You would wonder why they haven't gotten very big considering how old some of the trees there are. A tour guide told me the reason they never got very big was because lightning would strike them during thunderstorms. I have seen about 5 of the trees replaced in the past 4 years, always with large B&B specimens. Here is a picture where you can see the row of tulip poplars: