sycamore

I have a Sycamore tree in my front yard in southeastern Michigan that is approximately 180 years old. The trunk has a few vertical splits in it, and a few tree service companies have been canvassing my neighborhood and each pointed out the splits and asked me if I wanted to take the tree down...

So it looks like this tree is in the extreme northern part of the Sycamore's normal range here in Wisconsin. My uncle has a rather large example on his farm. Lately I noticed that the bark on the trunk has been shedding and just generally not looking great. I don't know much about these...