Edward, You're wise to be looking at straight trunk trees - that looks like a winner. Maple trees often get a twist, and as you can guess, that would mean runout, more difficulty in drying (trying to maintain a flat board) and lower stability in the dry wood. The exterior of a Maple log, the sapwood, is the commercial high-grade material (just the opposite of many other trees, such as Walnut, where the heartwood is valued.) It takes a mighty big Maple tree to have 8+ inches of sapwood - I'd guess that the tree would have to be at least 24" to 30" in diameter to get 8" wide quartersawn material that is all sapwood. On the other hand, just because furniture makers have a prejudice against Maple heartwood doesn't mean that you need to, and if you'll leave some heartwood on your billets, you'll have a much easier time hitting the 8" wide mark.
Just ink: sounds like the tree was dead, or partially dead when it fell. Rot sets in pretty quickly as the tree dies - the opportunistic fungus spores are on the tree its whole life, and the living tree fights them off as part of its battle to survive. Once the tree is sick or dead, it is quickly invaded by the body snatchers, er, I mean fungus.
Dennis
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