P.S. The black stuff is sooty mold and is of no consequence.

Almost looked like "crunch berries"...our sometimes-term for the distorted male flowers on ash affected by ash flower gall mite. But like you Brandon, I was not able to make a positive ID. Are there ash trees in NM?

Addict, you sent in some good pics. But may I request yet another shot, with extreme close-up of twig ends?

There are actually several species of ash native to New Mexico. Fraxinus cuspidata, anomala, velutina, berlandierana and maybe even more.

Almost looks like those flowers emerged, then died.

if it did not leaf out.. LAST YEAR ... its not going to leaf out this year.. as it died last year ...

ken

Agree with Beng-it does look as though the flowers dried up shortly after emerging. As to the ash flower gall mite-if that is even an ash tree, which I still can't quite make out-these are nuisances and not at all anything to do with the tree's demise. Sorry I couldn't do better-the time of year is making it hard to tell what's what, as far as new, old, or in between.

But as Ken says, if it was dead last year, it's still dead now, lol. The seeming attempt to leaf out late last year would also tend to support the idea that it is now deceased. As one final check, scratch somewhere on the stem and look for green cambium just beneath the bark. If green, there is somehow still some life in this thing.

I'd question whether the black substance was in fact sooty mold. Sooty mold forms on the excretions (honeydew) of sucking insects, like aphids and scale. If the tree did not leaf out last season and there is no other larger plant overhanging the area, then it's hard to imagine a) where the honeydew came from to generate the growth of sooty mold (no leaves, no aphids or other plant sucking insects), and b) I'd expect to see it on the top of branches rather than the underside. And most certainly not at the base of the trunk!!

I'm with brandon - looks like herbicide damage.

So there is not an option to repair the damage and get it to recover for next spring? The tree is just simply deceased and I will need to replace?

Thank you everyone for taking the time with this.

Do that scratch test first. May as well be certain one way or another. But if no life in the plant, well then yes, it will not resurrect itself on Easter Sunday. Which may strike some as a bad analogy.

What do you know of any potential pesticide treatments-of any kind-in the area within the last couple of years?

As far as the black shading under some branch crotches.....I don't think it to be significant here.

"Sooty mold forms on the excretions (honeydew) of sucking insects, like
aphids and scale. If the tree did not leaf out last season and there is
no other larger plant overhanging the area, then it's hard to imagine a)
where the honeydew came from to generate the growth of sooty mold (no
leaves, no aphids or other plant sucking insects), and b) I'd expect to
see it on the top of branches rather than the underside. And most certainly not at the base of the trunk!!"

While sooty mold can form on excretions from sucking insects, it is also commonly seen on tree trunks (and other plant parts) where sugary exudate is produced by the plant (especially from certain types of wounds or breaks in the bark). The patterns shown in the pictures above are very typical of this phenomenon. I think chances of the black coloration being sooty mold are fairly high. And again, it's of no consequence to what is happening with this tree.

I see several indicators of trouble. Bottom line: if any leaves pop, wow. If they actually persist until June, maybe there is a tiny chance of being OK. IMHO issue is all that reflected heat from the rocks. Not much you can do to overcome that with Fraxinus. Not even including the fact it will be dead in 20 years from EAB anyway.