This is very weird!
Seemingly dead above the girdle = no green cambium under the bark.
Seemingly alive below the girdle = green under the bark. Leaves on shoots! No black back at the bottom of the girdle.
BUT there is seemingly a dead, older branch too, below the girdle --> at least it doesn't have any leaves.
This tree is not grafted.
There is something very wrong with this picture. What is it that we are not seeing? Or what have we got wrong? Some things are being implicitly assumed to be true that aren't OR something(s) thought to be fact(s) is(are) not fact(s) but, rather, erroneous assumptions. Gotta dig deeper
@Nor Cal AC. Methodically.