Could be needle cast disease. Has it rained a lot recently? Stressed trees often suffer from it. You could cut out all the dead branches and dispose of them so it doesn't spread to its sister if planted nearby. Although thats a lot of deadwood, but worth a shot since the amount of time invested in it. A arborist may be able to assist also.

an ID would be a good place to start ....

ken

phone rang ... anyway ...

is it a pine that should do well in your area???

second ... im not sure i would invest in onsite diagnosis ... seems to my eye.. it might be too far gone.. to bother with anything other than removal ... especially if its in a key spot.. where you have to look at it all the time .... outta sight.. outta mind.. might be expeditious ...

if you do want to mess around with it ... start by getting rid of all those diseased needles under the tree ...

ken

is it planted too deep / not enough

watered too much / never

??? ron

It was planted the same depth as the others planted at the same time. 2 Hemlocks, 1 white pine and this is one of 2 black pines (at least this is what I was told). All planted from bb and dug the same depth and hole size (I remember because I’d thought I‘d die diggging in the baked NC clay). It never seemed to take off like the others but it had steady growth. I watered the 1st year then left on its own. It’s on the side of a small hill so I know it doesn’t stand in water ever.

Ken,

im in agreevent with you that I’ll probably replace it but not until fall. My question now is this is it ok to wait several months or should I get rid of it soon? Its too late to plant any type of replacement as we are heading into summer but I don’t know if whatever is killing this tree will spread to the other pines or hemlocks near by.

Looks like a needle cast fungus problem to me. That would be why it grew okay for awhile, then went brown - it wasn't infected until later on. Or as infected.