Depends on how alkaline your soil may be. Most maples are quite tolerant of neutral to slightly alkaline soil conditions - they don't require acidic soil although they might prefer it. If 7.5 or less, they should be fine.

Lane, are you growing Acer tataricum? If so, I'd be curious to know how it is performing.

I have over 7.5 for sure... well the natural soil is well over 7.5 w/ limestone cobble.

Here's another question. Will the composition and ph of the soil appreciably change in a well-established, well-maintained yard over time?

Maackia - They have recently started planting those around town quite a bit. They seem to be doing really well and are nice trees. I think those red samaras are a bit goofy, though. I've actually been looking for a plain old Acer tataricum, but all they sell in my area is the hot wings. I'm growing three bigtooth maples that are doing very well other than, as I mentioned in the RM forum, they were frozen this past week. Hope they re-leaf. They are native to the region (300 miles away is the edge of its range) and are well adapted to my area. Can tolerate alkaline soil very well

"Here's another question. Will the composition and ph of the soil appreciably change in a well-established, well-maintained yard over time?"

"Appreciably" is the kicker in this scenario :-) It depends on what your current soil pH is and what you use to amend it. You can get some reduction in pH but I doubt it will be significant....maybe five tenths of a point, not much more. The problem will be maintaining the pH at a lower level. Most soils have a natural buffering capacity that will resist significant changes in pH and any amending will have a temporary effect at best and will have be redone periodically.

Thanks, gardengal. The local arborist is planting in a few local parks trees that are not terribly well-suited to our soils, like red maple and sugar maple. This arborist claims that since these parks have been around for 115+ years that the soil is now suitable to grow trees that require, or prefer, more acidic soil. Is there any truth to his reasoning?