Are My Japanese Maples Going to Die?

What's going on with my tree? Can I do something to save it? Duct Tape?

This has more to do with Grass and roots than motorsports.

I'm not a biologist but I'll take a stab. That tree looks sick. The dead bark is no longer protecting the live bark and the nutrient rich Cambium.

Are your other trees similarly effected?

Try Penn State Master Gardeners. https://extension.psu.edu/programs/master-gardener

They are a good resource. They helped us with something a few years ago with a water issue. Good Luck.

If you have to cut the tree down - it burns very well.

Bumpy 

Check this out:

https://ask2.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=764276

apparently it's sometimes normal who knew?! 

Acers do suffer from die back and from too much sun as well as from several parasites.  I have around four dozen cultivars and find that sometimes the suffer sudden die back for unknown causes.  Suggest you post a couple of pics on an Acer site - this one for example:  https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/maples.9/

You should get some good suggestions.

Squirrels maybe? The first year we had ours we had a squirrel problem and had to put a cage around the trunk. Apparently they like the taste 

Do you have deer?  One of my trees died this year because a buck was rubbing his antlers on it and scraped off a bunch of bark.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

Why yes I do! Wow. I hadn't considered that as a possibility. But it kind of fits the evidence. There's little holes around the areas of messed up bark.