It appears this post was overlooked. How do maples do in the pacific northwest?

What about a Bigleaf Maple (acer macrophyllum)? It could get larger than 40ft, but that would be many years down the road.

Maples seem to do well here, although the color is never as stunning as in the eastern US. What about Magnolia grandiflora? It's evergreen and supposedly a fast grower with well-behaved roots. It should easily get to 40 ft. It's often recommended for screening. No exceptional fall color, but my neighbors' tree reblooms a little in late summer.

I keep reading discouraging comments from arborists who say bigleaf maple is a troublesome urban tree, with invasive roots and weak branch grown (= windfall damage). Seattle has it on the list of forbidden street trees. It seems to be more of a rural woods or forest tree.

We live on 12 acres and have lots of bigleaf maples around. I absolutely love them. Wonderful shade in the summer, nice sound from leaves in the breeze. Fabulous fall color.

However, in high winds when the leaves are out, they are susceptible to breakage.

This was cross-posted on the Northwest gardening forum and the poster received a number of very good suggestions there.

FWIW, there aren't too many shade trees that don't grow well in the PNW, so there are many options to choose from. Maples, even Japanese maples, are as common as mud here. Bigleaf maples will easily exceed 40' and do so with remarkable rapidity here. And comments regarding their inappropriateness in a cultivated and smaller suburban garden are right on. Plus, they get lousy fall color, turning a uniform golden brown, period. And the magnolias do have a lot of surface roots, are difficult to underplant and provide a huge amount of litter, even for an evergreen. Plus they won't be very happy in half day sun, at least not up here.