7 Signs Your Tree Is Dying or Becoming Dangerous

Trees are remarkably good at hiding problems. By the time most homeowners notice something is wrong, the tree has been declining for months — sometimes years. The good news is that the warning signs are usually there if you know where to look. Here are the seven we walk Joplin homeowners through during a free assessment.

1. Mushrooms or Shelf Fungus on the Trunk or Base

This is the one that should make you call. Fungal fruiting bodies — mushrooms, conks, shelf fungus — growing directly out of the trunk or at the root flare almost always mean significant decay inside the wood. The mushroom you see is just the reproductive structure of a much larger network already eating the tree.

Different fungi mean different things, but as a general rule, visible fruiting bodies on a structural part of the tree warrant a professional assessment within weeks, not months.

2. Vertical Cracks or Seams in the Bark

Bark cracks aren’t all created equal. A shallow crack on a fast-growing tree like a silver maple is sometimes just growth — the trunk expanded faster than the bark. But deep cracks, especially ones that run vertically up a major trunk or branch, often indicate internal cracks or split co-dominant trunks. Cracked unions over a target are one of the higher-failure scenarios in the Ozarks.

3. Cavities or Hollow Sounds

Tap the trunk with a rubber mallet or the back of a knife handle. Solid wood sounds solid. A hollow trunk sounds different — duller, more drum-like. You don’t need a perfectly sound trunk for a tree to be safe, but as decay progresses, the percentage of remaining sound wood eventually drops below what the tree needs to hold itself up in a wind event.

4. Significant Canopy Dieback

Walk back from the tree and look up. A healthy mature oak, maple, or sweetgum should have a relatively full canopy of leaves in summer. Dead branches at the top, large bare patches, or "stag-horn" tips where the small twigs have died back are signs of root or vascular trouble.

A rough rule for Southwest Missouri hardwoods: 10–20% dieback often responds to pruning and care. 40%+ usually doesn’t.

5. New or Worsening Lean

The danger isn’t a tree that has always grown at an angle — it’s a tree that has started leaning. Look for:

• Cracked or heaved soil on the opposite side of the lean
• Exposed roots that used to be buried
• A grass ring or mulch ring that has lifted on one side
• A lean that has visibly increased over weeks or months

Any of those signs in combination is a root-plate failure warning. Trees in this condition can fall in a stiff breeze with no other warning.

6. Sawdust-Like Material at the Base or in Bark Crevices

Insect frass — the fine, sawdust-like waste that boring insects leave behind — accumulating at the base of a tree means active insect activity inside. In the Joplin area, the species we worry most about are:

• Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) on ash trees — D-shaped exit holes, S-shaped tunnels under the bark, and rapid canopy thinning.
• Carpenter ants and certain wood-borers in already-decayed wood, which usually means the tree was in trouble before they arrived.

7. Peeling, Sloughing, or Missing Bark

Some species shed bark naturally (sycamore being the classic example). What you’re looking for is bark falling off in patches where the wood underneath is dead, discolored, or visibly damaged. Bark is the tree’s circulatory wrapper — when it’s actively coming off, the cambium underneath is usually already gone, and that section of the tree won’t recover.

What to Do When You See These Signs

One sign doesn’t always mean removal. Two or three together usually means it’s time for a professional assessment. The three combinations that almost always lead to a removal recommendation in Southwest Missouri are:

• Fungal bodies + significant canopy dieback
• New lean + cracked soil + cavity in trunk
• EAB symptoms + canopy thinning + bark loss on ash trees

If you’re looking at your tree right now and thinking, "yeah, it has at least two of these," that’s a good time to schedule a free assessment. We’ll tell you honestly whether you’re looking at a removal, a heavy prune, or a "keep an eye on it."