Found a great arborist to come out and check my very old Willow tree. He is guarded in his thoughts on the survivability of the tree.
Recommended deep watering on a certain schedule for two months. Then reevaluate the condition of the tree. As you can see in the pics, she's hurting.
The side facing the camera, dead or near dead. The closest and biggest branch "might" have some green wood. The two behind are clearly not living .. but some minor chance there is green wood in it somewhere.
So the plan moving forward is to remove what truly is dead. He will also be applying a fertilizer. If nothing else, to help recovery or lengthen the remainder of its life.
Being a woodworker, I will try to harvest good sections for lumbering.
Will be very sad to see the tree get cut so dramatically
by bullfrog48