Can anyone help identify this tree disease and let me know if there is anything I can do to help stop or slow it?

Hi Nate, and welcome to ATP.

It would help us a lot to know where you live, at least the city and state/province? You can enter that info in your profile. Your location can give a good clue to what kind of tree diseases are prevalent in your area.

Also do you know what kind of tree it is? It looks to me as if this tree is growing lots of healthy new branches down below the affected trunk area. Does the bark always look like that? Or is it different down low where the healthy growth is? Can't tell from the pictures if the growths are making the bark fall off , or if the falling off of the bark makes the growths welcome.

It looks like some kind of fungal growth. Could you possibly cut or scrape off a couple and get a closer picture of them? If they come off easily, it may very well slow the spread of the fungus (if it is fungus) if you just remove the ones you can see. IF you do this be sure to put them straight into a sealed plastic bag so that they don't release spores into the air that might re-infect anything they land on.

Thank you Elaine! Below are some answers to your questions:

Do you know what kind of tree it is? - I'm not sure what kind of tree it is. I tried doing some digging online with no luck.

It looks to me as if this tree is growing lots of healthy new branches down below the affected trunk area. Does the bark always look like that? - The bark is fairly dark everywhere else. The tan areas are just in the affected area.

Could you possibly cut or scrape off a couple and get a closer picture of them? - will do!

Thanks again for your help and for the warm welcome.

-Nate

Hi Nate & to ATP!

Nate, it would also help a ton if we could get an ID on that tree. You already have some photos of it but it would be great if you could do some close ups of the leaves & unaffected bark & if you could get a shot of the entire tree & then post them in the ID forum here:
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
Tell them if the tree is evergreen or not.

Does anyone else think that is a type of scale insect in the photos? Possibly Pulvinaria regalis/Horse Chestnut Scale insects - they attack other types of trees as well.
@JRsbug can you take a look please?

Hello,

Several branches on one of our ~11 year old redwood trees have died and others are showing signs of dying. However, the tree also has new growth. We've been giving it water additional water, but it still looks stressed. These trees were planted by the previous owner of our house, and they were clearly planted too close together, but we like the shade they offer and don't want to lose them to disease. We live in Morgan Hill, CA, which can get quite hot at times during the summer, but so far the temps haven't been too bad. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing the die-off of these branches?

Thanks,
Doug

European Elm Scale.