Question
I have a well established, 25-30 ft. fruitless pear tree in my southern ca. front yard. Several months ago I (ignorantly) removed a large section of roots that were raising the ground on my lawn and concrete walkway. As I look back now I realize I removed too many roots, approximately 10-15' away from the base. As a result the leaves are dead. Is the tree dying or in shock? Is there anything I can do to keep it from dying? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer
The root carry the water and nutrients to the foliage. The root system extends out about 1 1/2 the width of the branches and the majority of the roots are within the first 2 feet of the soil surface. If you cut more than 25-30% of the roots you will put the tree in great stress, Even cutting a few main roots will cause some of the foliage to dieback. What happens is the remaining roots can not sully enough water to the original amount of foliage so the tree loses foliage to correspond to the amount of root cut. IF all the leaves are browning you may have lost the tree. I would try watering the tree with 1 inch of water--place a pan under the tree and turn the sprinkler on and when the pan has 1 inch of water in it stop. Do this every day for a couple of weeks then every third day for a couple of weeks then once a week until the Fall. Water if you do not get a good rain. Hardwood tree have the capability to re-grow foliage so if the tree has enough root system left it should leaf out again.