Looks like a mechanical wound, not biological. The wood seems a bit scruffed up on your first picture. The tree will be fine but perhaps clean up the frayed bark edges with a utility knife. The other wounds are minor and pretty much healed. Could have been a cold snap that popped the bark some time ago.

tj

Not what you asked about, but... that tree appears to be planted too deep - there's no sign of any root flare. Remove soil from around the trunk until you see the base of the tree widen where the roots are flaring out from the tree - that is the correct planting depth.

The first picture does seem to show recent mechanical injury. The last one, though, with the verticle cracks may be winter bark split. If it's on the winter sunny side of the tree, that's likely what it is. Shading the tree on that side in the winter will prevent it in the future.

There's not much you can do about the wounds except hope that the tree will heal itself - something most trees do handily.

looks like i hit it with the riding mower ....

it is telephone poled .... no root flare at the soil level ... pull back the mulch and soil until you find that level .... then level out the remainder of the berm .... dont worry about finding some surface roots .... just shave them off ....

no need for an arborist ... trees heal themselves ... it will form new bark in a year or two ... and will do just fine

good luck

ken

Agreed. Top pic is a mower injury, ten million of them a year in this country.

And I agree with the winter injury diagnosis. It will heal or it won't, depending upon the health of the tree, and that tree will have decreased vigor because of improper planting, so may not heal. If only 5 years old all those trees may start showing signs of stress from being planted too deeply and the low-bid maintenance company plowing into trunks.

Hopefully all the trees planted in the treelawns were not planted too deeply. Our neighborhood was just like the OP's and we went ahead and replaced the too-deep tree in our treelawn with a KY coffeetree.

Dan

Thanks everyone. Only thing is, we haven't mowed the grass yet (probably will have to start this weekend) and we don't use any maintenance companies. However, quite a few of our neighbors have little 4-wheelers for their kids so I am actually suspecting one of them crashed into it. (Don't get me started on the lack of personal responsibility or at the very least telling us what happened.)

We didn't plant the tree, but it doesn't surprise me that it was planted too low. Our builder slapped these houses up in no time and I'm sure the landscape company they used operated the same way. I'll see if I can pull back the mulch... definitely not a volcano (I have learned a thing or two on these forums!).

Will see if time heals all!

hey dan.. its a maple .... odds are it wont die.. even if i mowed it down with the pickup ... lol ..

just get the soil down.. and it should be all set ...

ken

ken, I'm involved in a lawsuit over the very issue of misplanting in this thread, and among the species affected is maple. Some spp. are more tolerant of deep planting, but not all are immune to decreased vigor from being planted too deeply; the decreased vigor allows a higher likelihood of successful pathogen attack.

And if that is not a mower injury but an urchin with low-wattage parents, I empathize with the situation - who are you going to socialize with because it won't be those sorts of people...sigh...

Dan

LOL Dan. We want nothing to do with the next-door neighbors who bought their 10-year-old a 4-wheeler (and we don't live in the country... he goes zipping up and down the city sidewalks on this thing). I have no doubt it was them. Thinking about posting the pic on my facebook where the mom can see it and asking "Anyone see what happened to our tree?"

Luckily there are many good neighbors. There's always going to be one you can't stand...

Thanks again for the help, everyone.