Should I remove or save my red maple?
Red Maple isn't a habitual problem species, so a sound one is usually worth an opinion before it comes out. This was the default ash replacement, so central Indiana now has an enormous cohort of red maples and Freeman hybrids all planted between roughly 2005 and 2015 and all aging into their problems at the same time. The thing that blindsides homeowners is chlorosis — red maple wants acidic soil and much of this region's clay runs alkaline, so the yellow-leaf-green-vein call is a soil pH problem, not a disease.
How to tell which one you've got
Read the leaves before the crown: interveinal yellowing with green veins is manganese and iron chlorosis driven by high soil pH, and that is a fixable soil problem, not a death sentence. Genuine decline is outer-crown tip dieback with progressively sparser foliage, and if the trunk base is flattened with no visible root flare, a girdling root is the answer and the tree's remaining life is measured in a handful of years.
The structural question
Straight-species red maple was among the least ice-damaged trees in the ISA's ice-storm survey at 1.3% severe damage — genuinely one of the better performers. The Freeman hybrids are the exception and the distinction matters when you quote: 'Autumn Blaze' is half silver maple, with fast soft wood and narrow forks that split down the trunk under ice, so the species is fine but the most-planted cultivar is not.
Related
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