Zone 6a. Can anyone identify what makes holes like this? Whatever it is has made its way to the lowest branches and killed them. Dead branches are full of sawdust.
It’s hard to say definitely from photos what the root cause of all this is.
However, holes like that are almost always woodpeckers going after insects under the bark. The insects in your tree aren’t necessarily the cause for its decline though. The insects under the bark might be there because that tissue was already dead and was a great home for them to set up shop. We’d need to understand more about this tree before making a definitive conclusion as to why it got to this point including lighting conditions, soil conditions (moisture, composition, nutrient levels etc ..) planting depth, etc …
Regardless of what some keyboard warriors may say, no one here is going to be able to give you a great answer as to what’s going on without a full inspection which is usually best done by an ISA certified arborist.
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It’s hard to say definitely from photos what the root cause of all this is.
However, holes like that are almost always woodpeckers going after insects under the bark. The insects in your tree aren’t necessarily the cause for its decline though. The insects under the bark might be there because that tissue was already dead and was a great home for them to set up shop. We’d need to understand more about this tree before making a definitive conclusion as to why it got to this point including lighting conditions, soil conditions (moisture, composition, nutrient levels etc ..) planting depth, etc …
Regardless of what some keyboard warriors may say, no one here is going to be able to give you a great answer as to what’s going on without a full inspection which is usually best done by an ISA certified arborist.