Okay, so I know someone who has had three 20-yr-old sugar maples die over the last few years. The soil on the property is mostly heavy clay. Unusually heavy spring & summer flooding rains for a 3 year period led to standing water/over-saturated ground that persisted too long and caused the obvious death of 2 of the 3. The other tree dying is surprising though. The tree has collar/crown rot. It's on a slope so there is plenty of drainage and it was planted properly. There is a garden next to it where the owner piles leaves for compost. Is the excessive rain likely the culprit for this tree as well or an unavoidable plant pathogen in the soil? Both maybe? Could it have started as root rot and moved upward? There have been no injuries caused by lawnmowers, etc. Sometimes bad things just happen? Curious what the plant disease specialists on here think.