Spent 4 hours chasing a lean on a red maple before I checked the obvious

Diana Williams · 2026-10-08T15:50:09.170036+00:00

Had a client in Tacoma call about their 40 foot red maple leaning more than it used to over their driveway. I spent 4 hours climbing it, checking root flare, probing the soil, even dug a couple test holes looking for decay or girdling roots. Turned out the neighbor had removed a big Douglas fir on the other side two summers back, and the maple had just been slowly reaching for that new light gap the whole time. Nothing wrong with the tree at all, just growing toward the sun like they do. Any of you got a trick for telling normal phototropism from a real structural problem before you waste half a day up there?

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Spent 4 hours chasing a lean on a red maple before I checked the obvious | Arborists - The Community Guide