Dead and dying trees

[Clinkis]

I have spent the past week tapping my trees. I’m putting in about 340 taps this year. I tapped one section this afternoon and made a startling and concerning discovery. About 30 of the 120 trees (sugar maples) in this area are dead or dying. I noticed a couple trees last year in this section had dyed but the rest were seemingly healthy trees. This particular section is in a lower area and are smaller trees. I went back and checked my other areas and didn’t notice any other dying trees. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

[mountainvan]

Do you have road runoff,salt, going to that area? Is it very wet? Insect infestations?

[Clinkis]

Not anywhere near the road. This particular area is surrounded by swamp and low lying but doesn’t flood. There are areas of maple only 100 yards away that are perfectly healthy. I’ll try and take some pics and post them.

[maple flats]

Are those trees crowded, starving for sun? It might just be natural thinning. However, maples can survive generally with little sun and then shoot up when they get more sun.

[MN Jake]

Whats the signal that they're dead? Bark, buds or whats going on?

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

If they're in a low area, they're probably dying because it's too wet. Sugar maples don't like wet feet. Ground water changes over the years and the soil probably doesn't drain enough anymore to support them.

[DrTimPerkins]

It is almost impossible to say without seeing the site and the trees and getting more of the history of the site in terms of weather, management operations, possible stresses, etc. It's kind of like saying, "My grandmother died...anybody got any ideas why?" Anything offered would be speculation.

In any case, if it isn't an insect or disease situation, trees typically die from EITHER:

1. Intense competition (especially in young stands) over a period of time.
2. Short-term intense or prolonged moderate-severe stress.
3. Multiple interacting stresses, neither of which alone would typically kill the tree, but when taken together, push it beyond the edge.

If your site is wet, I'd want to hear about the weather conditions over the past two years. Was it unusually wetter or drier there? Were there any insect issues in the last few years? How is the site nutrition?


If they're in a low area, they're probably dying because it's too wet. Sugar maples don't like wet feet. Ground water changes over the years and the soil probably doesn't drain enough anymore to support them.

That is possible and a reasonable guess. It is also possible that the trees got used to a certain level of moisture and the ground water level dropped suddenly for some reason (somebody breaking a beaver dam nearby perhaps) during a dry spell, making the site drier for several months at a critical time.

[Michael Greer]

Carefully remove the dead ones and say thank you for the excellent fire wood. Look at that wood carefully for signs of insect damage. Watch the remaining trees to see if they improve or begin to fail. Overcrowding, over-watering, over-thinning, and even over-tapping could cause a die-off. It takes several years to kill a tree, and you'll have to think back to what has gone on in that area to make a theory of your own

[to100]

What are their diameters, have they been tapped before?

[Clinkis]

The trees range in size from 10”-20”. They have smaller crowns. I wouldn’t say they are over crowded. They definitely haven’t been over tapped. I wouldn’t say they have been stressed at all in the past 2 years. 3 years ago we had a bit of a drought. This is only happening in a 2 acre area of the bush.

One thing that Dr. Tim said that’s made me think is regards to ground water. This particular area is lower lying and surrounded by swamp. In the past few years the beavers have raised the water level in the swamp somewhat. Although this area hasn’t flooded I wonder if this has caused an issue. I’m going back into the bush tomorrow to finish tapping. I will try and take some pics and post them.

Thanks for all the suggestions

[maple flats]

Sugar maples do not like their toes wet. That being said , if they seeded in a small rise with wet around there they can adapt, but if a 10-20" tree gets the water table raised by beavers that can often cause some mortality for sure. It's a case of the tree likeing what it had and then that changes. Too much water on the roots actually drowns the tree, the roots need air too.

[Daveg]

I have spent the past week tapping my trees. I’m putting in about 340 taps this year. I tapped one section this afternoon and made a startling and concerning discovery. About 30 of the 120 trees (sugar maples) in this area are dead or dying. I noticed a couple trees last year in this section had dyed but the rest were seemingly healthy trees. This particular section is in a lower area and are smaller trees. I went back and checked my other areas and didn’t notice any other dying trees. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?
It sounds from your description that the die off happened very suddenly rather than slowly. Most sugar maple deaths are preceded by decades of decline. That being said, speculation would trend towards a sudden change in their environment. A distinguishing characteristic (low area) would lead to excess water being the culprit. A Google map view of your area shows a lot of agriculture with their attendant herbicides and pesticides. Hopefully, no chemicals are to blame. It's unlikely that crowding, insects, or acid rain killed them because those would have killed them slowly and the trees would have showed noticeable symptoms such as leaf and limb loss, bark degradation, low sap output . My guess would be more rain than usual, like that which caused the Great Lake Ontario Flooding.