Is the top of my tree is dying an emergency?
Within weeks. The top of a tree is the far end of the supply line and the hardest place to push water to. When a tree cannot meet demand it abandons its most expensive real estate first, dying back from the top and from the outside in. So dieback that starts high is a message about the bottom of the tree. In most cases the trouble is in the roots or in the water-conducting tissue of the stem, not in the branches you are actually looking at.
What changes while you wait
Slow, and the slowness is the trap — this is a two-to-five-season story, so it is easy to keep not calling. What changes while you wait is the wood itself. Dead branches lose flexibility and lose their grip on the parent limb, and after a season or two the dead sections begin shedding on their own, which converts a tree-health problem into a falling-objects problem. If the dead wood stands over a driveway, a deck, a walkway, or a play area, removing that deadwood becomes a this-month job even while the tree's own future remains a this-year decision.
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