Question
We planted 20 about 8' live oak tree down a drive way with clay/sand soil about a year ago.  We have a drip line on all trees and they have been (seemed like) doing very well.  This past week we have noticed out of the blue 3 of the trees leaves are turning brown. I've broke off a piece of the limb and it appears that the trees are dying.  We planted the trees with the root ball mesh still in tack.(I was told to leave it on).  Do you know what might be the problem? Do you think we are over watering? Do you think we just have three bad trees? We are just confused on what we did wrong. We really want to save these trees if we can.
If you want me to send you pictures via email, please let me know.

Answer
I would guess the trees are suffering from the record drought we in Alabama and Georgia are having this year.
It could be the trees that are showing the most signs are the ones that were not properly planted. A properly planted tree with root ball is planted in a hole that is twice the size of the root ball and fill with good top soil, mulched with not more than 3 inches of mulch and watered with at least 1 inch of deep watering each week. During the dry periods I would water this way every third day. The way to measure the water getting to the tree is place a pan under the drip line over night and see how much water is in the pan. Should be 1 inch. If not you are not watering the roots enough deep water and just watering the upper roots and then the tree reacts to any drought conditions. I would say the problem is not enough water.

It could be other disease related problems but I do not have enough information to diagnose that. I would suggest that you call the Georgia Forestry Commission county office and ask one of their Foresters to come take a look at the trees. This on the ground service is free.
Here is the web link to their County offices.
http://www.gfc.state.ga.us/ContactUs.cfm#CountyUnits