This tracks with the land around me. The West side of my property is a swampy brook loaded with red maples and standing dead ash. The maples are often clump formations. The single ones are quite tall and thick. Across the street is a big spring fed pond about the size of 2 hockey rinks surrounded with pine, oak, and red maple. The woods behind that are almost exclusively tall, old, thick, single trunk red maple. That's where I sugar, I have 25 trees marked.
All this land was originally an old farm then an apple orchard for 100 years until the 1980s when my street was made and houses built. You won't find a single sugar maple anywhere except in one guy's yard. He has 3 big ones he planted in 1980 but they are struggling health wise. He spends a lot of time trying to save them. The dominant yard trees are red oak, red maple, black birch, hickory, black cherry, and pines. It used to be ash trees too but they are long standing dead. I have some juveniles out back maybe 8-10" diameter but they'll eventually succumb to EAB. I also have a beautiful mature elm in my front yard but that's fairly rare too. Most are gone from Dutch Elm Disease. I'll be really sad when that tree goes, has a tire swing for the kids and just a really classic American yard look to it.
