Old LARGE Maples

Without a leaf they look like the sugar maples I just took down, but could be silvers as well with that bark,

Firewood maple.


KC

iskiatomic said:

Firewood maple.


KC

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+1

Papa Dave, have they given you strict instructions on chain saw use on their property? Or are you at large ?

Boy the bottom 5 feet of that tree would be an absolute nightmare to split into firewood if you ever do take it down!

From the little bit of the leaves I could see when I looked at the full size picture I'd guess sugar. Clear shots of the leaves will tell us for sure.

jwoair23 said:

Boy the bottom 5 feet of that tree would be an absolute nightmare to split into firewood if you ever do take it down!

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One of the reasons I dislike big yard birds for firewood. I'd take it of course but tree grown in the woods split so much nicer.

Firewood, and good hardwood, too big and close to the house.

If the tree is healthy, I'd leave it alone!

JMNTBHO of course

Bark has long plates that seem to curl on sides--typical of old sugar maples. Also, I blew up a picture and the leaves also seem to be sugar maple.

Another sign of the throes of death is that in the spring the upper branches don't put out leaves, and each year the leaf level gets lower.

Does not look like silver to me. Looks more like norway.

Jags said:

Yeah, I could buy "norway",

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I can id silver over the phone. Hello: yes, ok, front yard, yes, Telephone poles, cant see any. You no what it is: No but its pretty good size, but not for a guy like you! RUN FOREST RUN!

red berries look like there from a viburnum

They look like sugar maples to me. The leaf and bark combo seals the deal.

PapaDave said:

Well, if they ever decide to take 'em down and not put 'em to use,.......I've got first dibs.

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Esppecially if those are sugar maples to the south or east of the home, I'd leave them even though they are close. They are already big so you're not going to save money getting them taken down now. They will undoubtedly provide shade in the summer keeping house cooler, color in the fall, home for birds, possibility of maple syrup in the spring, add beaiuty to the yard, to say nothing of environmental advantages over lawn. May remain there and healthy for a century or two more. When I built in the mid 70's, cleared an area in a wood lot to do so, so thetrees that were near the clearing were forest trees suddenly exposed to sunlight, a stresser. I protected the trees, but one maple to the south, about ten feet from the house, was hollow, although it looked healthy. When the basement was blasted, we ended with limestone boulders in the crooks of lower branches (above an approximately 20 foot perfectly straight trunk. Some pretty wierd lower branches too. The tree had a large healed hole in the bottom, about two feet uo, and when one put a stick in the hole it became obvious that the tree only had about two inches to wood surrounding a hollow core. I talked with a friend about taking it down, concerned about the house. He advised leaving it. The tree had a healthy, if small forest crown, the trunk was straight so the tree was not leaning toward the house. We're on about 2 inches of rich forest soil over limestone. Our well is maybe ten feet from the tree. When twenty years after building we had to replace the pump (iron build up), we found massive numbers of feeder roots going own throughout the blasted 8 foot deep area, Long story short, 37 years later the tree has a huge healthy crown, the tree has increased about 16 inches in diameter, now has much more healthy outer wood in the trunk (about 10 inches around a hollow core), and my only concern is preventing too many branches dropping leaves on the roof...Plus, it'll give lots of warning if it does start to die, and at that point I'll have grown lota of good firewood....