"FlatTop" wrote in message ...
I bragged of this impressive newsgroup to my landlord and he asked if I
could find out why sections of our Maple trees seem to "burn out." It's not
happening to all our Maples, but some. And it happens every year. This year
we're having a particular spotty problem (curious about it also) but we have
the early-burnout problem every year. What causes it?

Looks like it might be maple anthracnose based on the photos on the
following page and your photos:

http://www.cfl.scf.rncan.gc.ca/colle...ie_e.asp?id=30

Google.com has several webpages on maple anthracnose, which occurs
during cool wet weather. If the weather is very dry and there are no
fruiting structures on the leaves, then it is probably drought injury
as already mentioned.