Bark suggests Norway maple. Whatever it is, such bark cracking is not uncommon for soft maples, and it's already healed, so I wouldn't worry. Remember, soft maples (Norway, red, silver) don't have very long lifetimes.

It's one of the red leaf Norway Maples rather then the native Red Maple. Norway Maples often suffer from encircling roots from their tree nursery days that choke the tree to death later in life (branch die-off). Poor branch structure with lots of included bark appears to be the cause of your crack. It's another issue that could have been dealt with a little better by the originating nursery and by the homeowner during the first 5 years it was in the ground.

Both of those issues take decades off potential life of a tree and neither issue can be fixed now. You should get an evaluation from an arborist regarding its future but my take is to monitor its decline and eventually make that decision to remove it.

Thank you Bengz and Smivies for the great and helpful comments. I forgot that it was a red Norway maple, which is not the most desirable of maples. The homeowner at the time was cheap, and surely got it somewhere cheap, if not free for the digging. I'll try to get a better picture of the tree from farther away in a few days and post it. I agree that the best route to take is keep an eye on it and make plans to replace it in the not too distant future. Funny, I'm not used to thinking of trees as having a limited lifespan if they are not seriously damaged in some way.

hey vinny ... long time.. no time ... still dragging plants around the neighborhood chained to your bumper.. or are those days over .... lol???

its all about tree time ... if we think of trees living 100 years .. nice round number.. then yeah.... this one is shorter.. maybe 50 or 60.. or 70 ... but thats still a lifetime for most of us ... and this one might easily hang around another 20 or 30 years ... but it might NOT be pretty .... during its eventual decline ....

i think you hit the two variables nicely ... first in how it looks.. spring to spring ....if ANYTHING start to make you not happy .. just be done with it ... plant 2 trees to replace ..... if you need to placate your tree hugging tendencies ... mother earth net plus one ...

and the other variable .. is the cost benefit ratio ... how much will it cost to replace the fence.. if it takes out parts of it ... OR!!!! .. get rid of the fence ....lol ...

one upside.. as a maple.. a hardwood ... it takes longer for interior rot to reduce structural integrity .... whatever.. its still a maple.. lol ...

nice to hear form you .... i hope this helped ..

ken

ps: how are the house renovations going ...

Ken! Great to hear from you! I haven't had to do anything extreme like drag plants around with a truck lately, but ya never know....

You are right about "tree time" and I thank you for reminding me of it. I should have realized the tree is probably nearing the end of it's useful life and yes, I have decisions to make. We shall see what spring and summer bring, and I have to think about what to replace it with, as I already have most of the trees I want in my yard. Fence is the neighbor's, and is cheap but nice looking plastic picket fence panels.

House keeps me busy and poor as a churchmouse, but is more fulfilling than a night of drinking.

Now if the weather stabilizes....Was -23 Tuesday and -26 Wednesday, today in the 40s, tomorrow 50?

vince