Answered for Cumberland, Marion County (town limits extend east and north into Hancock County) County.
The main reason mature Scotch pine is disappearing from Indiana windbreaks and old Christmas tree plantings. In Cumberland, the biggest and oldest trees stand in Old Town along US 40, over houses on a corridor continuously settled since 1831 — that is where a crew will meet 100-plus-year specimens with structures under them on both sides. Buck Creek carries the bottomland canopy, the east-side Hancock County subdivisions date from the 1970s through the 2000s and their canopy is mid-life, and ash has been removed across central Indiana by emerald ash borer; no published street-tree inventory exists for the town. There is no cure once symptoms appear.
Cumberland's canopy and what's at risk
The biggest and oldest trees stand in Old Town along US 40, over houses on a corridor continuously settled since 1831 — that is where a crew will meet 100-plus-year specimens with structures under them on both sides. Buck Creek carries the bottomland canopy, the east-side Hancock County subdivisions date from the 1970s through the 2000s and their canopy is mid-life, and ash has been removed across central Indiana by emerald ash borer; no published street-tree inventory exists for the town.
What to look for
The whole tree browns in a single season, often starting on one side. Needles stay attached.
Whether the tree can be saved
There is no cure once symptoms appear. The tree needs removing promptly — dead pines are a fire and fall risk, and the beetles that carry the nematode breed in the dead wood.
Timing in Marion County (town limits extend east and north into Hancock County) County
Remove and destroy infected trees before the following spring, when the beetles emerge.
“This is the second time we have hired Holmes for tree work at our home. A few years ago they removed a tree that was too close to our home and did an…”
“Had a tree fall on my home, my mother knew one of the employees (Conner) he got in touch with Scott who came from near Indy all the way to Fort Wayne…”