Question
I have several large pine trees in my yard that are within reach of my house if they fell.  I recently had a tree service come out and I was given some information that I抦 questioning.  He took me to several of the trees and pointed out a faint ring in the soil around the base of the tree.  He told me that is a sign of root damage and that the tree will probably fall in the near future during a hard rain.  He also pointed out a few holes in the bark and said they are infested and will die soon.  He pointed to one tree with some dead lower limbs and with obvious green growth at the top and said 揟hat one is dead?  He seemed to have a reason to cut down all of the pine trees in my yard and predicted each one would fall somewhere on my house.  It all seemed very suspect, but I抦 most interested in whether the faint ring around the base of the tree indicates fatal root damage.  Is this information legit?  I抦 in NC and these are long needle pines, possibly Loblolly pine.

Answer
Nothing that you said that tree service man said resembles a problem that pines would have. The "faint" ring around the trunk at soil level is normal for pines--the bark changes from the bark on the trunk to the root system. Hole in the bark are made by several insects and some birds (woodpeckers). IF there is pitch coming from the hole then it could mean bark beetles BUT In this case it does not sound like a problem. IF there is green needles in the upper branches the trees are OK. In the spring the foliage tends to be sparser than other times of the year due to needle drop. Pines have 2 sets of needles on them and as the new needles leaf out in the spring the older second year needles drop off making the foliage look less full.
Tree service folks are not usually Foresters and make their living taking trees down. I would not cut any green tree. I would call the NC Forester Service (state agency)and ask one of their Foresters to come take a look. I would not let this Tree service cut these trees.