Hi Bboy, Famartin, Jqpublic, and Wisconsinitom, I'm not surprised that the sugar maple can make it to 500 years in ideal conditions. The person who has been hauling away the lumber from our tree has found an iron peg, and today a nail (with his chainsaw, unfortunately), revealing a glimpse into a history we can only guess at. But we have stands of native sugar maples all around Ontario and throughout Quebec and New Brunswick. It is a ubiquitous tree here. The "sugar bush", and the "sugar shack" (where the sap is boiled down) are common expressions here. The Mennonites and many other farmers and chefs tap the trees in the spring. Municipalities and cities often extend special agreements to allow farmers to tap the trees on city or regional land. Maple syrup is a huge commodity here with maple syrup festivals every spring. This year the sap was running earlier than usual. Jqpublic, I do have photos of the trees in the Fall, but I'll have to find them and post them online before I can publish them here. They are indeed majestic. Ours tend to yellow, and yellow/orange. Here's a tiny glimpse from my studio of the one we cut down (never to be seen again):

I don't have any expert advice for you, but I just wanted to say I feel really bad for you. I can just imagine her spraying the Roundup like she was putting out a fire. Roundup and weeds are all she knows. I love my trees. I've lived with them for many years and have an emotional attachment to them. As far as dealing with her - find out what the laws are first. Then read her the riot act, calmly but assertively, and tell her what the law requires. (Maybe give her a photocopy or a phone number to call if she has questions.) Give her a deadline to make the corrections, and tell her you will take further action with an impartial third party if she does not do so. If she makes any remarks other than "I'll take care of it immediately!" then just tell her clearly that she does not understand how serious a matter this is, and that her actions are a clear-cut violation of your property rights. The longer she ignores it, and the condition of your property continues to deteriorates, the more difficult it will be for her to resolve financially. If she gives you a hard time, tell her that her attitude is unacceptable, and forces you to put the matter into the hands of a third party immediately. And follow through, of course. This approach has worked for me, and I have never had to take legal recourse, because my no-nonsense attitude gets their attention. It is also civil discourse, and there have never been left over bad feelings. Good that she is moving, but you need to think and quickly if you want her to correct the damage that has been done, that you can at this point document, before she is gone and can ignore you. Good luck. Stick up for your trees!

freeze followed by sudden thaw damage: boring insect damage: sun scald damage: Any of the above conditons could be affecting your tree. An arborist should be able to determine which is affecting your tree. A situation, when the tree has broken dormacy in the early spring, of the trunk being frozen after the tree's sap has begun to flow; followed by a sudden thaw, often times is found to produce cracks like you have described has manifested on your tree. Even though you are only now noticing the crack, it's possible that the trunk could have been damaged since early spring? Otherwise, if you are certain that the crack only showed up recently, it seems more likely a situation of a boring insect, which could cause such bark damage. You stated that the tree shows signs of being stressed from its exposed location, and that the tree appears to stress the most in summer heat. Most trees that are stressed seem more easily invaded by boring bugs and insect infestations. If you do not want to hire a tree specialist; the best thing you can do if a boring beetle, insect, or other such bug is what has caused the bark damage, would be to buld up several 4 inch high rings of raised soil around the tree's root-spread area. When finished the area under the tree should look like multiple broad bottomed trenches, each a little further away from the tree's rootball. Those trenches should encircle around the tree's trunk, and spread about two or three feet beyond the tree's dropline. Once you have created the trenches, apply Bayer's systemic tree and shrub, insect and boring bug prevention product. This fall is the best time to apply the Bayer product. That way the tree has enough time to take up the right amount of product for bugs that try to attack the tree in the following spring and summer to not find the tree as a hospitable place, or to be a good food source for them. Once the cause of the trunk damage is resolved, then patiently allow the tree to heal its trunk damage. In future winters and early spring times, protect the tree's trunks from freeze thaw damage; in each fall give the tree the systemic Bayer treatment; then, in each mid-spring you could help the tree further by installing trunk wrap around all the lower unbranched trunks to prevent sun scald. After all that, if the tree still seems to stress during it's summer heat exposure, you should consider planting an item that is large enough and planted in the right location, to cast afternoon shade on the JM. The best would be a dappled shade which is cast onto the Jm from 2pm to 5pm. If there is no place to plant such a large shrub or shading tree, then at least consider setting up a system of shade cloths which are positioned to cast the needed afternoon shade in the hottest part of the summer. All that, must seem to be a lot of work, If you do not want to put forth so much effort to help your tree heal, then your other option would be go ahead and treat the tree with the Bayer product described above, but then to wait until just prior to when the JM should break dormancy next February or once Winter's snow melts. If this time usually accurs in your area some time in late February or early March, at that time dig up the tree and move it to a location where it will always, no matter how tall it grows, have the right sun/shade exposure it needs. Then plant a same-sized kind of tree which can handle the sun exposure, which the slope, where you dug up the JM, provides. Your JM, when it was youngand shorter, might have gotten the kind of shade it needed. More recently, though, it may have out grown the proper shade it needs, which the slope might have provided for the tree, when it was a shorter.

Just because they provide an "explanation", doesn't necessarily absolve them. An explanation is fundamentally an excuse. And excuses is nothing more than a claim as to why things are not as expected. The question becomes is the expectation/expectations reasonable, and the expectations/excuse valid. And that can vary with the individual. However the original poster is not happy with his purchase, and is entitled to express those opinions, as it is for the seller. However the point of view it is the buyers responsibility to "ask" for resolution is invalid in my opinion. The buyer is fundamentally asking for resolution when they report a problem. As a seller, the seller is asking you to buy something from them. When the buyer does buy something, they are exchanging value (money) for value (here plants) with certain expectations. When the buyer does not receive those expectations, since it is the seller which was asking for the transaction to begin with, it makes them responsible for offering a possible solution after being made aware of a problem. The buyer by making the seller aware they are not happy (did not receive perceived fair value in return in their opinion) is fundamentally asking for resolution. So when the original poster stated "was quick to reply to my complaint but haven't offered anything to remedy the situation", then they are being reasonable in expecting some suggestion of resolution IMHO. I'm sure many sellers would take the point of view that it is not their responsibility, but that is simply logically invalid in my point of view, and regardless fundamentally occurs when the buyer complains. When they complain, they ARE asking for resolution. JMHO