I'm so sorry your learning was too late, but thanks for posting. Can you try feeding some of your stressed trees -- and watering them in drought?

Our city is *serious* about trees. Our forestry department tags diseased trees; they must be removed at the owner's expense within 30 days. No property owner can cut down a healthy tree over 3" diameter without replacing it with another tree on the property.

The first thing that goes up around a building site here is the orange fencing around trees. You must place fencing to keep all work and site materials at least ten feet from a tree trunk. You must lay planking to distribute the weight of heavy vehicles passing over tree roots. You must route sewer and supply lines to cause least damage possible to tree roots.

The sound of the chipper was in our yard last week -- removing a swath of buckthorn 15 X 200 along our creek. We give our 100-year-old American Elm injections every third year to try to keep it from dying of Dutch Elm Disease. Now the Emerald Ash Borer has come into our area. Maybe you could plant some of the newer, disease-resistant elms?

We're looking at all options. I am not familiar with disease resistant elms but I will check into it for sure. It seems so many species are at risk these days. We planted a beautiful ash tree at our old house and now I've learned that the city is purging the ash population because of Emerald ash borer.

We were pretty attentive to the trees during the drought but I think it was too little too late. We will baby the remaining trees and hope for the best.

I wish I had built in an area that put the kinds of cautionary requirements into place that your city has done. I could have requested it of the builder myself had I known better. I have already talked to our HOA about putting some kind of restrictions in place so future home builders don't do more damage.

Tree roots can grow very shallow and broad -- several yards and more away from the base of the tree and beyond the drip line -- especially on soil with lots of hard packed clay below. So construction equipment can potentially damage the roots even from the next yard over. It happened to my friend when a tear-down/new build took place next door. (We have lots of clay in our soil around here, so roots often grow shallow and wide.)

We consulted and arborist prior to building our addition, and sadly had to take down a big tree maybe 15' away from the new foundation. (It had issues anyway, but I was sad to see it go.)

FWIW, when you plant a new tree, or for your existing trees, look into a root feeder. (See picture below.) It gets the water deep down when you water the tree, to encourage the roots to grow deeper rather than shallower.

HTH

We have a Master Gardener in our neighborhood who shared this tidbit, so take it with that nugget - this is not from experience.

She said that when the builders shove soil up against a tree, and that soil changes that tree's soil-line for even a few months, that tree will die - within a year or a few. It will kill it.
When I learned that, I was so upset that our builder also unwittingly (unthinkingly) mounded dirt up against many of our mid-aged poplars and maple.

This was in addition to his gouging a ton of trees with his earth moving machinery.

We still have a fair stand of trees, but we have WAY more grass than we wanted....

Heard and noted! Thanks, Sidney! I would hate to have something like that happen to me, especially after taking pains to find a lot with trees you wanted to keep around. Kind of sad, for the trees and for you.

Chicagoans, thanks for the tip. A root feeder would be a good investment in our case.

Wwwhiskers,I had heard that soil banked around trees could potentially kill them. Our builder even said he would make sure they wouldn't change the grade around the trees for that very reason. Unfortunately,we learned that much more is required to protect trees.

BTW, we had lots of trees dinged up badly by heavy equipment. It seems to me that if one is considered qualified to operate heavy equipment, he or she should be skilled enough to steer clear of very large trees.

"We are losing trees at such an alarming rate that I wondered if we weren't experiencing some sort tree killing epidemic. "

The major killer is heavy equipment driving under the tree canopy and damaging the feeder roots, and any changes in grading that bury feeder roots deeper (or dig them up and destroy them).

It takes a decent amount of planning to make sure existing trees are not impacted.

The 'no go' areas for equipment and grading can be pretty large to protect them.

Thanks for the heads up!

Here is a link to a story about a plastic surgeon that went above and beyond to save a 100+ year old white oak tree:

Here is a link that might be useful: White Oak Tree

allison -- Nice story! How about a lightning rod too? Our city installed one to protect a huge old oak in front of the city services building.

No idea if it has one. I know someone that lives near the tree, so I pass by several times a week. The picture doesn't do it justice. Here's a larger photo, but same shot.

Here is a link that might be useful: bigger photo

Thanks Allison, I love stories with a happy ending. My arborist said he wished he could find more builders in our area that would invite him in to be part of a team effort to preserve the integrity of a wooded setting during the building process. An ounce of prevention.........

Crown reduction is key when a tree's roots are damaged (or waterlogged).

Check with the arborist about this.

It cannot grow enough new roots to feed all its leaves and its system will collapse unless you remove some of the leaves that it has to feed. Go high. It needs the lower level leaves more than the high leaves. Remove a portion of the highest branches and you allow the tree's system to be more balanced, since its roots have already been reduced. This allows the tree to stay alive and be less stressed. Being less stressed it will regrow its roots faster than otherwise.

Davidrol, thanks for the great advice. It makes a lot of sense.I'll share this with my neighbors who are now all wondering what they can do to avoid our experience.

As a builder and tree lover I share all of your pain and concern. I think most builders appreciate and share the concern and the disconnect comes with the Excavation Contractor.

While it might be fair to place blame on the equipment operators in some cases I can assure you that their job is not easy. Tree root zones go out to their drip line so if anyone is expecting to build under a drip line on a wooded lot then they have unrealistic expectations of keeping that tree alive.

On a completely wooded lot, obviously some trees have to go. You cant always control the direction of felled trees. Equipment is big and does not turn easily. Lots of dirt needs to be moved. Grades need to change in order to provide drainage. You cant expect to save every tree.

Identify the most important specimens that do not interfere with the foundation and resulting drainage change. Erect a barrier at the drip line. The better the barrier, the better the chances of suvivial. Iam talking boulders, Heavy chains, LARGE concrete blocks. Things not easily moved.

Its starts with the homeowner then builder then subcontractors. Better yet, dont build on private wooded lots with no infrastructure. City infill is the most sustainable place to build and the trees are usually crummy and/or full of invasives.