I wouldn't hesitate to remove the soil. I don't have to look back at a single tree I planted here and wonder what might/could have root problems... because I washed the soil off everything and went in and fixed everything. All the great advice given here regarding trees planted too deeply and except myself and horster - for the hundreds of posts & everyone else is willing to skip the obvious. B&B is troublesome and we all know it. If it weren't for Adam's willingness to dig into the rootball to find signs of roots ~6" below and if he'd of just left it, that tree would have died. John, if a root-system is really screwed up and say has a long taproot with minimal fine roots, I'll pot it into soil-less mix and put it in mostly to full shade until it grows fine roots and in a larger container than normal. It may take three years until I'm happy/ready to plant it to the landscape. If I think after I've washed all the soil off and pruned the roots that it is good enough to be planted to the landscape, then yes I do stake it but I don't stake any tree so it can not sway in the wind. I usually put two metal fence stakes on opposite sides and wrap a towel around the trunk of the tree and use green, plastic, horticultural tape to tie the tree off. And I dig an immense hole and plant above the soil line and because of all the backfill, the tree will stay in place due to the sheer magnitude of the weight of the soil. That's all I have to say/comment upon. Dax

Absolutely, Hair. For another example, we machine-planted 6000 seedlings last spring. To have looked for root flare-such as one exists in stock so young-would have been beyond ridiculous. What I did try to do is walk behind the planters from time to time, straightening and gently pulling up on those that looked too deep. But your point is well taken, and either there's more to be learned-by me at least-about root flares on tiny and very young stock, or it just doesn't really apply yet. +oM

You already have a thread posted on this!

most likely.. you have no legal right to mess with the citys tree ... might want to check that part out .. that said ... i would not create a problem.. by trying to fix.. what doesnt appear to be a problem... since you say the tree seems just fine??? ken