Tree Damage - Dead wood under bark/tunneling

[FarmallCT]

Hi All,

While putting up lines this past weekend I discovered a handful of trees that appear to have some pretty significant damage, primarily in the form of dead wood showing underneath the bark.

In several of the trees the dead wood under the bark is the only visible damage. On others, there is evidence of tunneling and holes in the bark. Several appear to be splitting in two and most appear to have multiple dead or dying limbs.

I had initially thought this may be in some way related to wet ground, as a good few of these trees are in a wetter area where runoff from a field flows, but several larger trees along the road show similar signs plus insect damage and are in a different location near the top of a hill with not as wet ground.

Any thoughts as to what this might be from? I have just finished setting up a new sugar bush and would like to take care of this if it is an issue that needs to be addressed. To my knowledge, these woods have not been tapped previously, at least not in recent times. There is some wire fence through a few trees. Not sure if this would explain the straight line in the one picture, but it is definitely not the case in the others shown.

Images attached below.

Thank you,

Matt

IMG_6477.jpgIMG_6540.jpgIMG_6541.jpgIMG_6542.jpg

[DrTimPerkins]

Looks like a mixture of things. First photo (horizontal tunneling) is most likely sugar maple borer. Second is hard to say. Third are woodpecker (often indicative of something else going on). Fourth looks like some old rotted area. Ask a county forester to walk through your woods in the summer if one is available in your area.

[FarmallCT]

Thank you for the reply. I will look into the sugar maple borer. There are several other trees with similar sections of dead wood under the bark so that would make sense. The last two are of a tree that splits off in two major sections and is splitting apart, so that may be the cause. Have noticed a fair number of sugar maples on the property that appear to be splitting in two, not sure if it is an age thing or what is causing that.