That theory works if you assume sugar maple only moved into your area relatively recently,. There is no reason over time they couldn't adapt as well as the ones in the west edge of their range.

Suburbia may offer a different environment then true woods. The young sugar maple may be out-competed by a shade tolerant plant that can't survive in the north...but which you mow down in your yards. (Any ideas what?). Maybe mature sugar maples do fine but the babies get taken out by a drought before they become mature...you water your specimen trees when they are young. Ever see a lawn escapee that had gotten to a decent size?

In TN, sugar maple is common in middle and east TN, less so in the west. In my area it is widespread but not particularly abundant. It likes slopes, so it is found on the western escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau, and the slopes of the Highland Rim, where it drops to the Central Basin. Black maple is also found in the same circumstances, and personal observation leads me to believe there may be intergrades between the two.

The fall coloration of the local sugars is interesting. The majority turn in the peak of the season with typical sugar maple colors, reds, oranges, and yellows, often all colors are found on the same tree. But there is a group of trees that are in the minority that hold their foliage into Nov and turn a uniform pumpkin orange. They are very noticable as they are at peak when most trees around them are bare. Black maple turns a reliable blinding yellow, a remarkable sight on a dank, dreary day in mid autumn.

In the vernacular here, Acer sacharum is called 'sugar tree', and there are quite a few place names as such. My late wife's people come from Sugar Tree Knob, at the base of Short Mountain (a family name), about 10 miles from where I live. At one time it was covered with sugar maples, there are still many there, some quite large.

Going off on a slight tangent, I'd always thought that Tsuga canadensis (the specific epithet means 'of or from Canada') was essentially a northern tree that moved south ahead of the last ice age, then retreated back north as the climate warmed and the ice melted. Supposedly it's just the opposite, the tree's nativity is in the south and it FOLLOWED the retreating glaciers to the north. To add insult to injury, the species was almost extirpated by a millenium long infestation of hemlock loopers, which prospered in the warming climate, of which there is fossil evidence. This info I found on the ENTS site, but I didn't save the info so can't provide a link.

'But there is a group of trees that are in the minority that hold their foliage into Nov and turn a uniform pumpkin orange.'

I see that same thing here in MN, except of coarse more the end of Oct.

I don't know about the native/non-native science but most of our sugars grow good in the loam soils with coarse clay sub strata. They'll grow if planted in our loam/sand sub but suffer during dry spells and if neglected, look sick and ragged when they get older. I've heard sugars like the deep, rich soils so maybe that explains why.

If I were to randomly throw a stone at a woods here in Wisconsin, I'd rate it perhaps a 60% chance-the numbers are nonsense obviously-that the stone would strike a sugar maple. This tree is expanding its range as southern WI oak/hickory forests that were held so only by fire are now being replaced by shade-tolerant maples and beech in some areas. But those fires, as much as we may love their effects, were in reality but an artifact of humanity, the native Americans doing that burning. So it's not exactly right-IMO-to say there is something "wrong" about how sugar maple is taking over in southern Wisconsin former oak/hickory woodlands. Maybe the sugar maple type forest is actually the more appropriate for those sites. In any case, we're not going to stop this changeover. Seedling sugar maples carpet the woods here every summer. Sure, if it gets dry enough for long enough, many of those seedlings will die, but the end result is obvious-sugar maple and its associates are on the move.

In New England, the climax forest is considered to be sugar maple-yellow birch-beech-hemlock. The massive white pines marked by The Crown for His Majesty's navy must have been a relic of some long ago catastrophe, opening the solid canopy to allow early successional pines to gain a temporary foothold. Maybe a cat 5 roared up the Connecticut River, leveling the forest from Long Island Sound to the Canadian Maritimes.

Today the forest, except in the far north, is oak-hickory, with a smattering of conifers. Current clear cutting practices seem to be encouraging red maple, considered a trash tree by loggers. A man-made catastrophe.

The Oak-Hickory forest of the eastern seaboard is a result of frequent low intensity fires set by First Nations people. It made the forest far more productive. Now that fire is all but absent, Maple, Beech, and Hemlock are coming back (wooly adelgid aside). As for White Pine in New England...it could be forest disturbance (fire, wind, etc) that set up a large same age stand.

It does seem that sugar maple colors in "sections" here - the named varieties like Green Mountain seem to turn earliest, but there are some that stay green MUCH later, coloring around 11/1. These may be seedgrown? Not sure.

The "volunteer" trees all seem to color on the late side.

To answer edlincoln's question, some of these "volunteer" trees are 6" caliper...

We have lots of sugar maples in the valley of Tennessee. From Indiana where sugar maples are everywhere so feels just like home in the valley not as big but they do the trick

The large pine/hemlock stands that once existed in Wisconsin were considered long-term seral stages. In other words, not climax, but a very long-lasting stage set up by disturbance of some kind, as you guys indicate. So long term, but not quite climax. Nevertheless, varying factors such as periodic low-intensity fires could keep these pine stands around for long periods of time.

Maple/yellow birch/hemlock/beech (in eastern Wisconsin only-hasn't made its way all the way to the west yet following glaciers) is also the primary climax forest type for vast sections of northern and eastern Wisconsin.

'Current clear cutting practices seem to be encouraging red maple, considered a trash tree by loggers.' Just as an aside, when I was looking for reds this spring, I crossed an area that had been logged of poplar trees last winter. The poplars, on the high ground, were already shooting from the roots. The area between there and the swamp had a thick population of red maples, growing there for many years. The loggers actually ran over 30' reds up to 4" in diameter when dragging out the poplars. Basically trashed most of the reds. The soft maples don't seem to have any commercial value. Even the large silvers in the swamps have sat untouched for decades.

Ken, I'm surprised to hear of clear-cutting leading to any maple invasion. Acer being one of our most shade tolerant genuses, I usually associate clear cuts in oak country with intended oak regeneration, in full sun. Hmm?

Bill, just one state away, silver maples have enjoyed somewhat of a boom in the veneer market. So you've got maple paneling, etc. that is actually being derived from big old silver maples in the swamps. Red maple is pretty low on the lumberman's spectrum. Strong tendency towards hollowness and other defects.

Hair, I've had similar thoughts because the local sugar maples that are aggressively spreading into the oak/hickory forest here, even along the lowest floodplains, turn color quite early and the leaves get "worn out" from the summers early on (late Sept) even if located in floodplains, so soil moisture isn't the issue. My thoughts are that their origins are from well to the north and have recently spread southward. Don't know how long, but it would seem to be at least hundreds of yrs to move such distances.

Many of the cultivars/nursery-sourced trees have leaves that last longer & turn later (and color better) by several weeks & I'm guessing their origins are more southern (southern Appalachians/lower midwest) & better adapted to summer heat/higher sun-angles.

Of course, logging practices may be partly responsible, but that doesn't explain why distinctly more northern-adapted trees are present in the wild here in such numbers (and spreading). And no, summers here are not getting hotter -- in fact, they're not as hot as the 30s (109F in Cumberland, MD in July 1930) and late 50s thru the 60s.

'Strong tendency towards hollowness and other defects.'

Yup, reds can be considered a 'weed tree' so commercially they are bottom of the barrel. But they will grow on marginally poor soils (unlike saccharum) and they do look so pretty in the fall. They like moist soil so they do better if they're watered and a little fert doesn't hurt them either. ;)

My opinion of red maples lowered when in mountainous VA as they are rot-prone, short-lived, easily-broken weed-trees there. No tree fared worse from the 1994 ice-storm -- even evergreen pines fared better.

However, I must say there's a beautiful, big roadside specimen in Boonsboro, MD, tho it may be a hybrid (has upturned side-branches like a silver maple).