Hi, The tree is located east of the town of Alsea on the coast side of the Coast Range. Photo 1 - Freshly cut branch is on the ground - all leaves yellow. Last year we cut smaller branches from this larger branch because they'd died too - we left all healthy looking branches/leaves. The branch came out of the trunk at the base of the leftmost main branch where it meets the vertical portion of the trunk - you can see a light colored spot there. Photo 2 - Cut at trunk where we removed the branch. The lower portion of the cut shows darker wood that is dead. The cambium changes at the boundary between dark-light. I am inclined to cut until all of darker wood has been removed and have live cambium all around. But I'm not sure that would be OK for the tree. Might end up cutting the entire left side of the tree off? In any case, should we "paint" the large wound where we've cut? Photo 3 - Wherever darker wood meets the bark, the bark is cracking. I have more photos - of the cracking bark of branch (hard black wood under it) and many more concentrating on various parts of the cut, some in much more detail. Thanks for helping!