What is this, can I prune it (May 10th) or should I remove it.

[OPC]

I’m in Ottawa Ontario, Canada. This tree is between two homes. It seems sturdy but it has strange colour in the truck and it looks so full of branches I don’t know if to ever been pruned.

I was wondering if I could prune it up this time of year or if I should consider just taking it out. I think it’s solid enough and sheltered from wind so I’m not to concerned about it falling but if it’s unhealthy and needs to go I’d rather not waste the time pruning it.

Thanks

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

If that is a neighbor's house, I'd cut it down just because it's basically on his house. Crazy that they'd build houses so close to each other and someone would plant a TREE that close to a house!

My neighbors place is like 15ft from my property line. Not sure who placed the house, cause the other side is like 60ft from the line. Was one of those houses that pretty much was woods one day, and a move in house 3 days later. It's a 2 story house, but the top story is nearly level with my house because it's in a hole.

 

[ATH]

That is a silver maple.

Pretty rough looking tree. It had started to uproot at some point (soil raised on the right/sunken on the left is a pretty good indicator), but the fact the top is vertical says it has 'self corrected' which means that happened several years ago.

At some point in the past, it looks like the entire top was hacked off - I'd guess the same time it started leaning.

That big area with no bark is going to decay. The question is whether that decays quicker than the tree compensates for it.

Unless you really love the tree, I'd lean pretty hard towards removing it and replacing it with a smaller species that is a better fit for the area. There is a lot of long-term maintenance cost to go along with that tree as it is. Silver maple is too big for that space.