The one in the picture looks like a goner.

You can wait until all the leaves die to cut it down, but I can't see that surviving much longer at all.

Jjs, what happened or what do you think happened to cause that?

if the bark is missing.. on that one tree.. all around the trunk.. it is dead.. and to have that much bark loss.. its been dead a year or two ...

i dont know why you would want to remove the others ... if they are alive ... other than they are maples.. lol ...

on the other hand.. if you have the removal guys there.. sometimes it pays to remove proactively ...

that dead tree.. could stand there for a decade ... or fall over tomorrow ... the base question is... who or what will it fall on ... out back on my 5 acres... i could leave it there forever ... and not go play under it in windstorms...

but based on the sidewalk behind.. i am going to guess... its pretty close to the house ..

get rid of the dead one by fall ...

now.. the sporadic success of your attempt to shade garden.. and the lack of vigor in the plants i see there.. is directly proportional to the fact that nothing grows well under maple... their surface roots basically suck the life out of everything ... even the most invasive weed on the face of the earth.. GRASS... is thinning ... lol .. and that sums up why i hate maples.. as a shade gardener ...

get rid of the dead tree.. i dont have enough facts to tell you if the others need to go

ken

WTH happened to them?

The tree with the missing bark is a goner, remove it ASAP. Can't say much about the other trees in the picture.