Was this tree a victim of lawn+grass herbicides?

[jasontaylor7]

If you look at the picture, the tree on the right is the tree they cut down last week. The tree on the left is a different tree in a different yard. The "dead" tree seemed great ?last year? as far as I can recall (not sure really), but this year as you can see it had no leaves, so they cut it down. I took a picture before they cut it down in hopes I could get feedback from anyone. My own theory is trees age in a certain way, and this "dead" tree is not aging normally due to the branch structure of a more youthful tree. I think that the company doing my neighbor's lawn put down some sort of weed killer that hurt this tree and not the grass. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!!!

 

[Jed1124]

Just a guess: judging by branch structure and the rate at which you say the tree died, your neighbors Elm tree died from Dutch Elm disease.

 

[medalist]

In the case of the speculation regarding an herbicide ( targeting turf) I doubt it.
Locally I have heard of a turf anti fungal causing some collateral damage. I'm very surprised by this observation but came from an experienced and trusted source.

 

[jasontaylor7]

https://communityenvironment.unl.ed...herbicide-name-new-product-entirely-different :

"Roundup for Lawns on the other hand, is the brand name of a new herbicide that does not contain glyphosate; rather it contains the active ingredients MCPA, quinclorac, dicamba and sulfentrazone. Each is a selective herbicide that controls various weeds without harming Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass or tall fescue lawns."

https://modernfarmer.com/2017/10/evidence-mounts-monsantos-dicamba-killing-trees/ :

" Earlier this year, reports began to surface that dicamba drift had caused telltale curling and cupping of the leaves – a common effect of dicamba – on groves of oak trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. Emails obtained by Hettinger thanks to the Freedom of Information Act show that Monsanto was aware of the issue. "

 

[Johnnybuck]

I managed to kill a large Acacia tree in my back yard with weed killer . They have a large but shallow root system , if I didn't cut lawn for a couple of weeks there would be small Acacia shoots popping up all over the yard even over in my neighbors yard 90 feet away. I hadn't used any chemicals on my lawn for 20 years and 4 weeks after spot treating dandelions the leaves curled up and and tree died.