|
It's hard to count the number of times we've seen
homeowners harm trees when they actually thought they were
preserving them. In most cases, this occurs during new home
construction when soil excavation and final grading are done.
Most trees are very sensitive to having much soil fill placed over
top of their existing root systems. Since it's necessary for roots
to "breathe" by exchanging gases, it doesn't take very much soil
fill to cause severe damage and eventually destroy a tree. Trees are
also damaged when soil is piled against the tree trunk. Therefore,
it's best to maintain the original grade around existing trees if
you intend to preserve them.
|
Soil compaction in tree root zones
The continuous movement of heavy equipment over the root zone of a
tree can also cause irreparable damage to a tree, so the entire root
zone (beyond the branch tips) should be fenced off during
construction activities. If it's necessary to make any grade changes
in the area of a tree, special steps must be taken to ensure the
tree's survival. See the
roots webpage
for more information.
Many people think of a tree's trunk as wood that can't be damaged,
but always remember the living tissue that lies just beneath the
outer tree bark. This area of active growth, known as the phloem
('flow-em'), should always be protected from nicks and scrapes. It's
common to see bark damage from excavating equipment, and these trunk
wounds provide open entryways for destructive pathogens. In that
regard, they aren't much different than a person having an open
wound on his or her arm. See the
bark webpage for
more information on trunk wounds, including diagrams.
|
