Tree bark sun damage...?

[PennyRoberts]

I have two maple trees in my front yard that faces west. It gets very hot and sunny in Oklahoma and I was told that the sun bakes the bark and that is why it splits in the summer... it caused one of them to break and then regrow but it keeps getting split every year to where it looks terrible where they have been trying to heal themselves. They are younger trees (one might be 3 yrs old and the other is 9yrs) so is there anything I can do to keep this from happening again and again or to help heal them?

 

[ATH]

Normally it won't get damaged in the same place twice.

You could paint the bark white or put white 4" tile around it just for the summer.

Or...plant trees that don't do that. Red maples and Fremanii maple cultivars are among the worst.