Question
I live in Southwest Louisiana and have a young oak tree (trunk is 10" in circumference at the base)that has the following symptoms:
Leaves are turning gold/bronze color,trunk appears to have cankers, dark brown to black area around cankers, bark curling around cankers and bark is splitting.
The tree has new bright green growth but the new leaves also appear to be slowly changing to the bronze color.
I cannot see any evidence of a pest.
We purchased two oaks and had them installed in our landscape 3 years ago.  The other oak is healthy.
PLEASE HELP - I have no idea how to save my tree!

Answer
Sounds like a disease and if the canker growth is on the lower trunk and all the way around the trunk there is not anything that can be done as far as cutting the canker off. The canker is damaging the trees system and not allowing water and food to get to the foliage causing it to turn and die. You can try fertilizing and watering it but I do not think it will do much good but worth the try. Fertilize with 10-10-10 at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter and water with 1 inch of water per week (place a pan under the tree and turn the sprinkler on and when the pan has 1 inch of water in it stop).