There is really no substitute for proper watering and weed control with newly transplanted trees that are experiencing transplant shock. If you want trees in an area and can do nothing to assist them, then it would probably be better to start with bare ground and then heavily seed the desired species. If everything goes perfectly, then you can always thin out the density. If mortality occurs, then you will have a more desirable stocking of trees, albeit at a spacing that may not be ideal. Tree from seed are more adapted to climatic changes, although severe drought can kill most young plants. The root systems of trees can often be in better health than the tops after transplant shock and/or insect/disease attacks. For example, a 5 gallon tulip poplar we purchased at a big garden center had top die-back after its first winter in the midwest. I coppiced the stem and it grew vigorously from a stump sprout. That was in 1989, and the tree is healthy and vigorous today and about 50' tall. Our recent very wet April caused my 10 year old 15' tall tulip tree to have a severe attack of fungal spores on the leaves. This is a somewhat off-site planting location with wet soils nearby from a downspout being rerouted to the yard instead of the street and also little air movement below 30' of height. The site was more normal when the downspout drained to the street several years ago. Most of the leaves on the tree turned black/died. Most of the stem and roots on the tree are still alive. I may coppice the stem this winter, if necessary, to get a healthy single stem. In the 9 previous normal years, there was only minimal fungal damage on this tree. If coppicing fails, then I will probably plant a 5 gallon baldcypress. Obviously, the right tree for the site conditions is very important and I am fighting mother nature with this experiment.

why is there no root flare ... and where is OP .... i dont understand where the fence is supposed to go .. down to the creek???? and why you cant just work around the root ... by cutting the fencing.. and placing it over the root... is the roots on the ground.. or hanging out in space ??? your fencing can easily be cut.. lets call it 'placed' around the root.. and rewoven ... ken

I've heard that drilling holes in a root and then filling the holes with herbicide can work. I've also heard of drilling a stump and repeatedly filling with gasoline over some days or weeks. Then burning the stump. (This supposedly can cause smoke to rise from the ground, here and there, at considerable distances from the crown.) I've killed smilax roots by sticking the stem ends into bottles of herbicide; might work similarly were you able to find a root end and jam it into a container of Roundup. (Make sure children and other creatures can't get near the container.) I once killed a mulberry stump by cutting back the stems, letting it sucker, and spraying the sucker foliage with Roundup--but I've always assumed that was just luck. A personal favorite is an 18V battery-powered reciprocating saw with a pruning blade (an underappreciated gardening tool, I've always thought). One would think some combination of the above would work on an elm. If not, I might be interested in acquiring a cutting.

No dead animals, no gas line nearby. I have had the root dug out, exposed to air for several weeks now. The smell has gone. The air bubbles are still there and the root remains wet even in dry weather. So I think sap is still coming from the root. I'm going to leave it alone until it all dries up. Then I think I'll fill it with sand. At least now I'm not afraid of having a health hazard in the backyard.