why this type damage?

On occasion I've noticed that previously healthy trees, coming out of dormancy in Spring, will have died on just one side. One in particular is a maple of about 25'. The owner feels that the dead side of the tree is on the same side as a patch of sandier soil and may have gone into winter with less water than most years due to the drought here. So we're wondering if the roots on one side of a tree feed mostly that side of the tree? Just wondering.

Or got a higher colder blast of wind. Or ground damage from de icers, or had a bug infestation started that the winter finished damages. Depends on the type of maple as to how long they typically live. Red maples maybe 80-100yrs, but sugar maples can live up to 400 yrs.

This is a pretty young tree. Guess I'm really wondering if the roots on one side of the tree feed mostly that side of the upper portion. I know I've had to sever major roots on one side of a tree for some water work but the tree seemed unaffected. Maybe I was just lucky.

Hope you are far from all the flooding or on high ground.

Family is all west of this years worst and hi ground. Thanx. I am sitting just north of Wheeling, WV and watching home. Sometimes root damage can take a while to show up, if its young, it may not have been established long enough to survive the extra chops. Luck to you!

Shopper,
I thought I had been to every Minnesota town, but can't say I've been to Brewster. By the time I get to that point from Eau Claire on I-90, I'm usually in a semi-comatose state. Does Brewster have a nice little downtown?

I'm stalling for time since I don't have an answer to your question. Actually, I'll go out on a root to say I think the connection of roots and branches is not well known, and some young soil scientist should take this up. Or perhaps even a middle-aged soil scientist...

Here's my contribution: For about 20 years I drove by a large Red Maple almost every day. It seemed healthy in every way. Every fall you couldn't help but notice how one large branch coming off the trunk at about 5' would turn a brilliant scarlet, while the rest of tree would be much more muted. I doubt this has any relevance to your original post, but...

Pseudo, perhaps that one limb was a stray from below the graft? Therefore its parentage would be the rootstock making it slightly different. Just a theory.

Pseudo... Wave as you go by, ok? Actually Fulda is my hometown. 4 mail routes come within a mile of me and Brewster delivered earliest so we chose them. As with too many small rural towns the main streets have pretty much dried up. When I was little, in the dark ages, you'd have to leave the sidewalk and step in the street to get anywhere. Now no one much bothers to hang in town. but I have the most wonderful group of neighbors in the world. Folks don't visit around much any more but if you need help most everyone is willing to lend a hand.

I too have seen maples throw out a bright branch for Fall display and the rest of the tree remains dull. It's always a branch way up in the tree, not from below a graft. Nature always seems to have surprises for us.

Suppose we'll never know what caused to death of just part of the tree in question. she decided to remove the tree and plant another in a different spot. The lady is quite elderly but still planting trees. Someone will enjoy the shade someday.

Ghopper, I'll definitely do that next time I'm in SW MN. :)

This is way off topic (about the distance from Mankato to Fulda), but I took a cue from the college students in town who I noticed seemed to have a preference for hanging out in the front yard of the homes they rented around UWEC. They'd be tossing bean bags, grilling, tossing a football, and generally being social for the whole world to see. Instead of being stuck in the back yard, they were in plain site for the passing world to see, which I thought seemed so friendly and inviting.

Long story short, my spouse and I updated the front of our house in 2012 and put in a small patio where we like to sit and have a glass of wine. We now have a few neighbors who will walk up the driveway and chat when they see us out there. I hope this is a trend that catches on -- it's a good thing.

ghopper-
On the advice of one of our forum regulars (Viburnum Valley) Iast year I read "The Bristlecone Book" by Ronald Lanner, a forester. A nice winter read, with color illustrations. In it he explains that some trees Including the Bristlecone, and some other conifers and some broad leaved trees, do indeed have what he calls "sectored architecture". In these trees the root on one side supplies the part of the tree above it. In the Bristlecone this is extreme, and some old trees have only one strip of living bark up from the only remaining live root, to the only remaining live branch.
I did a tiny google search of this term, and found some related terms of "hydraulic architecture" and "sectored flow". My brief search did not come up with a quick list of trees that do this, so I am not sure about maples. If you find out let us know!