Anyone else bummed out by this?

The palms are one of my favorite things about this great state, and seeing so many of them shrivel up into yellow husks is depressing.

one of the reasons for buying my current house was a big "double palm tree" queen palm (one root two trunks and heads). it was a beautiful tree, i loved it. about a year after moving in the fronds started turning brown. i had a guy come out and look at it. he said it was "butt rot" (some sort of fungus) and that it needed to come out, and here's the kicker, i could never plant another palm in this location because of the infection in the soil. i have sagos and other palms that are not effected in the yard but this one spot is "off limits".

I've lost one to this so far and a second is dying from it now. I planted a new Queen Palm maybe 6 feet away from the first one to die and so far it is doing well. After the second dies completely I will do the same. Of course it throws off the symmetry of the yard but what can I do?
Funny side story. One of the local landscape prowlers (drive around in their trucks asking if I want my trees trimmed etc) Made me an offer to cut it down and haul it off. It was a bit pricey so I ask how much if I cut it down and he hauls it off. He gave me a good price so I said I will give him a call soon.
So I looked at the tree a bit. Back in my Missouri days it the first attempt to down a tree was simply wrap a chain around it and pull with what ever you felt could do the job. So I hooked up my truck (3/4t 4x4 F250), tied off about 8ft above ground and within a minute had it down laying across the front yard. Unhooked and drove over a street where he was working on another yard and told him to come get it.
It worked out pretty good.

Actually there is a soil treatment that can be done that will allow the planting in the same general location.  Pest guy can treat the area with a gas treatment methyl bromide or something similar to that, it gives you better than a 50% fighting chance the new palm will survive.  If you are able to remove a good amount of soil prior to the gassing that helps as well upping your odds.

I lost a huge multi stem Euro fan palm that was worth a couple grand to Ganoderma, it's one were it grows a half shelf like conch on the side of trunk or base.  Another one of those no treatment deals.

To me what’s crazy is it appears like it came out of nowhere, but apparently has been in Florida since 2006.

I’ve been here since 2017, but have only really noticed it within the past six months. It’s at the point where almost any hammock or cluster of palms I see has at least one dead.

I had two palm trees die from it in 2011/12.  The first was a nice two stalk Christmas Palm and the second was a healthy Queen Palm. The soil was contaminated after that and any new tree would grow for awhile then die.

I moved, but return for frequent visits and have noticed it more often; southeast Florida.

they are pretty easy trees to cut down, but holy shit you would have thought i was cutting down a fire hydrant with the amount of water coming out of mine.

i also had to cut down a 40 year old water oak in my backyard damaged by hurricane irma, we used a 35 ton crane to fly the sections over my house into the front yard. a 48" bar had to be walked around the stump as it was about 60" in diameter.

they may be what i had, it started getting those huge mushroom looking things on it on the shade side. it was a beautiful tree until then.

Sounds like it, sort a mushroom looking that is firmly attached to the trunk, sometimes sprouting out right at the soil line too.  My euro was disney quality, really sucked to remove that one.

I love those huge old oaks, such a deep south feel. I can imagine how much of a pain they are to haul out once they die. I have seen branches 2ft in diameter. A 5ft trunk seems common enough for these beasts.

yep. that's them.

this was an actual "water oak". they look like live oaks (in size) but has a much smoother bark. their life span is generally around 50 years. when they die they lose whole branches. when a live oak branch dies it actually shrivels up, dries out, and is generally much lighter when it finally drops.

this water oak had two big beams coming over the main portions of the house, those two beams were about 48" in diameter where the split off the trunk. it was huge. after the storm the bark started slipping off (piles of bark at base of tree), and had bug holes bored all over. i figured i had better not chance it, and got rid of it. i still have 3 live oaks in the yard (they can live for hundreds of years) that appear healthy.

my whole neighborhood is covered in live oaks.