Tree had a couple branches broken from heavy snow and now when it has fully leafed out, most of the branches are sagging toward the ground. Are there more damaged limbs that did not appear when not loaded? Can I save this tree or is it firewood?
It looks like to me about 6/8 ft of the top needs to be taken out, then, the tree needs to be thinned as well. Looks like my neighbors maple, it’s grown straight up like 10/12 ft over the years, plus, the canopy has gotten much wider. Not a good situation for us, if it goes over, it’ll hit our house. Most of the weight in your tree is in the long gangly branches, which could break down even during a heavy rain.
Im not an arborist but the tree looks like its nice and healthy despite the limb loss. Cut off the broken limbs so they heal over nicely and dont create a rot spot/void that could make a weak area for future growth. New growth should slowly fill in where they are missing. Besides there's not enough firewood to cut it down yet.
A lot of nursery grown red maples have bad structure. Multiple leads and weak limb attachment with included bark like Bradford Pear. They start self destructing when the limbs get heavy enough. Large sections of canopy break out. Sometimes they can be salvaged, sometimes they continue to break apart. I split up a Red Maple yesterday that was taken down after half the canopy broke out. The trunk was also fractured halfway to the ground.
I would not do anything to it unless any limbs are broken or cracked bad. I've seen many trees heal themselves; it just won't happen overnight.
