Is my kentucky coffeetree dying or just stressed?

Coffeetree has very few serious pests or diseases, so when one declines the cause is almost always mechanical and recent — trenched roots from a utility or irrigation run, a grade change that buried the flare, or a girdling root from a poorly planted ball. Read it by timing: bare in May is normal, but leaves that emerge undersized and pale and then thin out from the top of the crown downward through one season means the root system was cut, not that the tree is sick.