Question
In the last few years our pine trees have lost needles from the inside of the branch(closest to the trunk)and only the tips are green. Does this mean they have a fungus or bugs? They used to be full and lush, now you can see through the tree. We have pine trees in groups of three (and totaling 4 groups) throughout our yard and hate to think of cutting them down. Thank you!

Answer
This is common for pines, Although pines are called evergreens they do drop their needles. They have two sets of needles and the older ones will drop off as a new set comes on. The ones that are dropped are the needles away from the ends of the branches. As a pines gets older the green needles are towards the ends of the branches and the lower inter branches become bare. Pines grown as screens are usually grown in a couple of off set rows so as the enter needles drop there is still some screen from the outer needles. I do not think your tree has a disease but us just growing naturally.