made my day

question - I have a sick looking quacking aspen. Any idea to save is welcome. Located in Southern Idaho.

Obviously the tree is doing fine on its own but is there anything I should do to help it? I’ve wanted to put mulch around it and make the ground around it look nice but don’t want to hurt the tree. I’m in central Maine in case that helps with an answer

Upon trimming the lower branches I discovered 4 large vines that are running well up the length of this beautiful pine tree.

I planted this river birch in May. At first everything was going well; I watered it every day, sometimes twice, for a little over two months. That’s when I noticed brown spots and leaf loss. I have fairly heavy clay soil and assumed I was overwatering it, so I just stopped and left it alone, but I’m worried it’s not going to make it.

I have an Autumn Blaze Freeman Maple, had it planted in 2010 (I think) as a 3in trunk, and it has been doing amazing. I haven't been in the yard much this year and just noticed this damage. I know these trees will have split bark normally, its just a part of how they grow, but this is far beyond that. The bark on either side looks healthy, doesn't seem loose or hollow. The bark on the left side of the scar is even still holding on. I couldn't reach the split further up, so I don't know if that area is the same, but it looks it.

I don't know how long it's been like this, judging by the scar growth at the edge, it is not recent. Might not even have been this year.

The tree looks otherwise healthy. I would not have thought anything was wrong if I hadn't walked around to the back side of the tree.

Questions:

A. What could have caused this?

2) Is the tree toast?

We went away for the weekend and as I'm driving up the driveway I see that my apple trees have been stripped at the trunk... I had the guards on them until they grew too big (2-3" diameter currently) around mid summer. They were 1 year saplings when I planted them, almost 3 years in the ground now. I'm hoping that since the canopy still looks OK I'm not out 2 of my new apple trees?

I will go find larger guards ASAP, but is there anything else I should do to the exposed area to improve their survival chances? I've kept the base pretty well bare to prevent things like this so I'm real mad at myself for not just getting larger guards for another couple years!

We live in central Iowa if that matters

About two years ago, I had a local tree company trim some branches off my locust; mostly low hanging and dead branches. The following spring, the tree grew tons of branches straight out of the top of the horizontal branches. From what I have read, the tree might have felt stressed from the trimming and grew those new branches to add canopy leaves.

Questions:

Why did the tree grow all those new branches?

Should they be left as is?

If left, won't they create issues in the future because they are growing 'in' instead of out?

Any other considerations?

Thanks!