tamarack

I'd call it midsummer, and the maples tend to drop all their seeds over a relatively short period. White ash is different - seeds mature mid-late summer but many hang on into winter. Looks to be a huge crop for them this year, maybe like 1992 when the north side gales around the December bomb covered our entire yard with ash seeds (and not a single snowflake), at least 20 per sq.ft., and next spring it was like every one germinated.

Probably 3-4 weeks after the red maple onslaught. And big seed years tend to be high-viability percentage as well.

Some red maples look half leafed-out due to all the branch space occupied by seeds, which should start flying here soon. (And some trees, brown ash in particular, still look half-leaved because - late.) Looks like lots of trees are producing big seed crops - the pine across from the house, numerous female white ash, and every apple tree in the area (assuming pollination gets it done.)

The close-up pic helps, though I'm not a good enough entomologist to ID the critter. Since it appears hairless, like an inch worm, maybe winter moth? That's an invasive from across the pond that's been chewing up trees in southern Maine. However, the season's massive green salad is a smorgasbord for all kinds of insects, some native and some from away.

Looks "dogwood-ey" thanks to those veins curving toward the leaf tip, a characteristics of the genus. Almost the only tree group with leaf veining like that. Bark isn't like that of the native flowering dogwood, which usually doesn't flower until it's a bit bigger than yours. It's also a touchy tree to raise and transplant. Most nurseries would be more likely to have Kousa dogwood, an Asian species that flowers (eventually.) All that said, I can't say exactly what kind of tree, other than it almost certainly isn't found in the Maine woods. Edit: Desktop, so can't see the critter on Kev's oak.

Quick and dirty way to estimate whether that tree will reach the pen. One needs a straight stick about 30" long. Standing with back to pen, hold the stick horizontally at arm's length with the near end against the nose, as close to the eye as is safe. Without moving the hand closer, rotate the stick to vertical, align where it leaves the hand with the base of the tree. If the treetop extends above the top of the stick, the pen is within reach. Same can be done with other possible "targets." (Similar right triangles) Apple trees are peaking with blossoms this year. It's a great year for the blossoms. Some years I don't have many blossoms and some years I do. So lots of apples for the deer. Last summer was very dry as I missed almost every thunderstorm. Wonder if they were stressed and that helped this season? Don't trees/flowers produce more fruit after a stressful time. Will have to Google that... My Haralred, the most proctive of our 3 by far, is absolutely covered with blossoms. The Ultramac and Empire look to have loads as well though they're just beginning to open. (Can't recall having them all blossom so late before.) Last year we had considerable blossoms on all 3, though not nearly as prolific as now, and there appeared to be good fruit set. Unfortunatley, all but about 2 dozen on the Haralred and a couple each on the others suffered premature drop during the superhumid period in July - maybe the wx favored some fungal disease as the cause, but I don't really know.

My thoughts: Since it's a double tree, things get complicated. Perhaps the cut should be made as close to the ground as feasible, despite all the extra cutting needed. Those twin stems kind of keep either one from going to the right by itself. If there's room to tip the left stem toward the camera, I'd do that first, cutting about 2' above the old stump to keep the right stem from interfering. First thing I'd do is tie a stout rope to the tree, preferably around both stems (unless the left one can be dropped first) and as high as safely possible, with the other end to a solid anchor, like another sizable but living tree. If a come-along is available, I'd tie a loop in the rope such that, when the tag end was firmly lashed to the anchor and the line from tree to tree was taut, the loop would be almost out to full come-along extension. That way the winch can be used without releasing from the anchor. --Here's how I was taught to safely dump a tree against its lean: Make a normal front notch; I'd recommend open face (90° angle between top and bottom of notch) to help control the fall all the way to the ground. Then make a plunge cut 1-2" behind the notch, making sure there's at least an inch (or 2 with a dead tree) of hinge wood remaining. Then continue the plunge cut toward the back of the tree, stopping 2-3" from going all the way. Then do another plunge cut from the back side 3-4" below where the 1st one would've come out, making sure that 2nd cut covers the "footprint" of the wood left at the back of the tree by stopping plunge cut #1. With the tree held by the hinge and the wood in back, drive a wedge into the 2nd plunge cut (on a big tree I've needed 2, struck alternately, and maybe sprayed with WD-40 first.) The wedging will split the wood between 1st and 2nd plunge cuts and tip the tree in the desired direction. Sounds complicated, but with the rope for safety and the tree never resting on less than 2 spots until it falls, things should go okay. ("Should" requires some "splaining", as Ricky would tell Lucy. I did this procedure on a large ash - 16" by 80' - and unfortunately there was hidden rot that compromised about half the hinge, all one side. The hinge failed and allowed the tree to fall not toward its lean, but sideways away from the rot, where it solidly lodged in another ash. If you see interior rot when you make the front notch, leave a wider hinge, especially behind the rotten part.)

When visiting the Minnesota Arboretum some years back, I saw a Mongolian birch (Latin name forgotten) about 20 feet tall and 6" diameter. It had beautiful copper-gold bark, as pretty as any tree I've seen. Is your birch like that?

The description fits the Eastern tent caterpillar but the picture looks more like the forest tent caterpillar. The latter doesn't make visible tents, and in an outbreak can defoliate whole forest. They prefer aspen but will eat all broadleafed trees. The early 1980s outbreak in N. Maine/NB had these critters being called "army worms." People would open a door and a hundred would crawl in, causing some folks to move away temporarily. Squished caterpillars stopped a few trains from climbing grades. I have a coupe of hickories that I planted out back, but those take awhile to grow and don't do well with transplanting since they have a monster tap root. I laso planted a yellow birch and a tulip poplar, but the tulip is another fast growing tree that drops a lot of branches over its lifetime. Tulip trees drop branches, but they're not in the same league as weeping willow for that. Wood of tulip tree is about as weak as silver maple but the former's vertical growth habitat makes it less likely to break from ice or wet snow. There's a large one - 30"+ diameter and 70'+ tall, in downtown Farmington (Maine) that doesn't seem to shed many branches and has withstood a lot of snow and ice. Two houses up from that specimen is a littleleaf linden (European relative of native basswood) of similar size that is a bit worse for branch loss.

'Fraid so. Had never heard of autumn blaze so I looked it up. Seems highly regarded for fast growth, moderate size, fall color, and tolerance to urban conditions. It's a hybrid of red and silver maples, and the piece I read (which could've worked as ad copy for selling this variety, so maybe check several sources) said that it kept the strength of red maple, which is far better at resisting snow/ice breakage than silver.

If there's no green in the buds, I'm pessimistic, but I'd wait until July before giving up. And that pic confirms that it's not a Norway maple; if it were, I'd not be all that worried about losing an invasive, but it looks like a native maple. Oaks are fine here. Big ol’ leaves. Looking good here, too, though the leaves are only about 2" long - everything is late and this morning's 31-32 didn't help.

Does not sound good. A young open-grown tree that produces those side shoots is probably a tree in trouble, trying to save itself. I f any of those buds are within reach, try splitting a couple with your nails (or with a knife, carefully.) If they're green inside, there's hope. I'm assuming it was planted 8-9 years ago, not grown from seed in your yard. Is it the native red maple, or the variety of Norway maple that has red foliage? (May not make much difference, though.) Has anything changed near that tree? Soil compaction, root damage, change in water table, reaction to lawn chemicals? Kev/Scott: That oak also looks to be in trouble, unless it's merely showing the initial work of this spring's feeding by gypsy moth larvae. Otherwise, something looks to be killing some high-in-crown branches, and that often portends continued dieback. Hope that's not the case. Trees are usually tough, but odd things can happen. There was a very healthy looking pin oak growing in front of the Coke bottling plant in Farmington (Maine), a tree about 15" diameter and 40' tall that had lovely red foliage each fall. (IMO, pin oak has the best fall color of any oak.) Then spring 2 years ago it completely failed to leaf out, and in late summer was removed. I've no idea what caused its death.

Not promising much precision in diagnosing specific agents affecting tree health from a photo, but I'm always ready to make a guess whether I know anything or not. When I was at U. Maine, one of the professors noted that science had not really arrived at a firm reason why trees die. Not referring to death from disease, insects, wind, fire, but just running out of life. Maybe it's similar to why there's a cap on human lifespan, cell replication gets sloppy and bad things result (simplification, but not irrelevant.)

When we lived in NNJ, it was easily noted that those caterpillars ate the white oak group first, then the reds, then everything else but ash. Have not noticed that white-over-red preference in Maine, though the fact that Maine has hundreds of red oaks for every white probably mutes the gypsies' priorities. Lots of reasons for oaks (or any species) to show that symptom, and weakness due to repeated defoliation/refoliation certainly could be a factor. If the non-leafed-out branches are in the main crown and receive good sunlight, the cause is likely some outside agent like gypsy moth or some disease. If the bare branches are within the crown/shade, it could be natural pruning, though white oak doesn't prune itself nearly as efficiently as red.

Not for much of NNE. And sun hasn't been all that abundant.

Usually EAB has infested a tree for a couple years before symptoms become visible, after which comes the quick death you saw. Apparently there is a very small minority of ash that exhibit resistance/tolerance for EAB, so I don't think the species group will go extinct, but will probably be gone as a significant component of the forest. Hillerich & Bradsby can switch to maple. Indigenous people in Maine and the Maritimes, for whom brown ash and the products made from it are important cultural facets, have no plan B.

I've read that oaks can harbor the chestnut blight fungus without taking damage; hence the inoculum remains in the forest waiting for its real food. Tough roots for sure! On the state lot (gifted by Gov. Baxter's nephew in 1969) near Merrymeeting Bay in Topsham, there are several American chestnuts. A white pine plantation was established in 1959 on 15 acres that earlier had been a market garden for about 20 years. We thinned the plantation early in 1989, and that fall I saw a 5' tall American chestnut growing in a skid trail. After 50 years (at least) under a plow layer, the roots still had sufficient vigor to sprout 5 feet in one growing season. 22 years later the tree was 11" diameter and over 50 feet tall, but now it's been blighted - dead above 15' and soon down to the root collar as well. Welcome to the regulated world of gas cans. they are designed to prevent you from catching on fire from spilled gas. and they suck And the irony is that I've spilled far more gas using the crummy thing that I ever did with the old "unsafe" ones. They're evidently designed so that one needs to employ both hands to use them (unless one unscrews the entire spout, which I'm tempted to do.)

Aspens showing some green at home, sugar maples in Augusta in full flower - looks like a good seed year for them (assuming tomorrow morning's freeze doesn't hit too hard.)

Agreed. The gray fur sprouts greenies.

Maybe -depends on lawn size. 32 yards will put 2" on 5,000 sq.ft.

Watched a short video on FB of Small's Falls, headwaters of the Sandy River, up towards Rangeley. Roaring in good shape, and still a significant amount of snowpack there. Going fast, but should keep waters fairly high for a few more days.

Some near-green on the south-facing field across from the house. Our lawn was fully snow-covered 3 days ago, so still brown (with about 99% fewer molehills than last year - yay.) Aspen catkins full length - at a distance look like mud-colored foliage. Wood frogs began "quacking" last evening, along with a few peepers.

That proves that "scents sense" can vary hugely. I find the aroma of both foliage and wood to be quite pleasant, though eastern redcedar is even better. I'm no fan of some of the weird arborvitae cultivars sold by the nurseries, but as a forest tree (Northern white cedar) it's a critical component of deer wintering areas and makes great shingles, too. (It's also the siding on our house - 3-sided "logs" that add 3-5" insulation.)

On the south side of the house, maybe.

I think parts of our lawn will become visible this time next...month.