Early this spring, my twenty year old King Crimson Maple showed some split bark that ran a length of roughly five feet up the trunk. On peeling the bark, I could see that there was already some callousing over the wound which was two inches wide.

With the warm weather, I was shocked to see that not a single branch had a bud or leaves. The tree essentially died, except for a few new tiny fresh branches that are sprouting.

Last year, the tree was the picture of health. I am sadly going to need to remove "my baby". Any ideas on what might have happened? I had no idea a tree could die so quickly. I always thought it would take a few years.