Help save my oak please!

[daaaveman]

Hello. My name is Dave and I'm new here. I recently bought a home in St. Louis and have an Oak that looks to have a problem. Please have a look at the pictures. I'm not even sure what kind of oak it is but the bark is falling off. I can tell you that the tree had a lot of ivy crawling on it which we pulled off. Some of the damage looks older but bark is continuing to peel off the tree. How do I save this tree or can I? Might I have a fungus or a bug issue?

 

[Dbodave]

Looks like silver maple to me, white oak has square shaped bark but I believe it will be thicker. Nothing you can do, but you can see the calllus at the side of wound will help prevent decay from spreading to healthy wood.

 

[C. J. Hall]

Agree on the Maple I.D. It has been run into sometime in the past and the injury has killed some bark tissue and exposed the heart-wood. A product called lime/sulfur can be painted on the exposed heartwood to stop decay and ward off beetles that might find it a good home. Bonsai growers use it on dead wood to stop decay when they have 'jin', a term for intentionally dead wood that shows age or resembles a lightning strike. Given another hundred years the tree might grow over that wound!

 

[Del_]

Not looking good with that much damage on both sides of the tree.

Plant some replacement trees and plan on getting this maple removed in a few years.

 

[mohick]

That ain't oak, and you ain't gonna save it!!!!!!!!!