Thanks for the input. The tree is an amur maple "flame". The old tree was also an amur maple. It was 40+ years old and rotting to death. A severe storm finished it off two years ago. Other than the eventual rotting, there was never anything wrong with the tree. I chopped out the old stump and roots by hand (not recommended). The location is a garden bed next to the patio. It's the perfect location for a tree so there was never any thought about planting somewhere in the lawn. No herbicides are used in my yard. One of my neighbors does use a lawn service that puts down weed killer, but I've never seen any issue on any other plant or tree.
