Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Diseased Maple?, 1 by scfundogs

scfundogs wrote:
Zone 8a/b:

We planted a Maple (I believe its a red..green all summer, orange & red in fall) about 8 years ago. Its now 25' tall. The trunk started getting splits in the bark last fall. There would be dark drip areas (sap?) that looked like it ran from the splits.

My husband was poking at the bark in one place to see if he could figure out what was going on and huge chunks came off. He said he saw some tiny insects moving around but they quickly disappeared.

I took some pictures of the trunk w/splits, the trunk with the missing bark section and the underside of the bark. Can this tree be saved? It has plenty of red buds on it so I'm hoping it'll be ok.

Someone pointed out that even if it could be saved it may be compromised and unsafe in hurricane or tropical storm force winds which can be a problem where I live.

If the pics don't load you can view them here:
http://homepage.mac.com/taraosment/miscpics/PhotoAlbum18.htm...

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Tara