Attached are photos of my dying sugar maple showing the trunk with some loose bark issues and the crown showing greatly dimished foliage. Photo was taken September 1, 2006. The diminished crown foliage is on the side of the tree where the bark is loosened and has some bare wood exposed. In the spring when foliage 1st appeared the foliage on the impacted side of the tree was smaller. It turned brown in June/July and now on the 1st of September the effected leaves are largely absent. About 100 yds away a neighbors maple had the same indications and after a waneing of around 4 years it failed to leaf out at all in the spring of 2005. I cut down this dead tree in the fall of 2005. The trunk wood was healthey appearing, i.e. it was solid and free from rot. The Crown branches had dried significantly during the summer of 2005 causing the crown branches to break up when the tree was felled. There are other sugar maples similarly effected in my area but not all have these symptoms. In fact other sugar maples within 50 feet of the subject tree are in apparently good health. My questions are: What is causing this problem ? What if anything can I do to save this once beautiful tree ? Ronald A. Wellman Webster, NY USA
I think this might be something you need to get an arborist out to see. Do you have black bears? They could be going after the sap!
Rima, Thank you for your reply. We do not have bears in our area as we are in a moderatly populated suburb. Regarding consulting an arborist. The neighbor, whose tree died and I felled in the fall of 2005 did consult an supposedly reputable arborist who recommended a feeding. The arborist charged a substantial fee for their minimal effort and fertilized the tree. The tree continued to decline and died. I have consulted our local Cornell CoOperative extension master gardeners hot line. They seem expert enough in flowers and shrubs but offered no help regarding my tree. In one of the other UBC threads I read a reference to vascular fungus diseases that cause harm to trees that have had substantial injury. There have been devastating ice storms in 1991, in 1998 and yet again in 2003. These may have opened my tree to fungal infestation. I'll pursue this possibility unless I hear otherwise. Does anyone know if there are treatments that can rid fungus infected trees of the infection ? Ronald A. Wellman
