Tree root damage on north side by a bulldozer

[Jdeere562]

Our street is getting a new sewer line. They ripped up all the paving with a bulldozer. Sewer is laid and covered back up past my house.
My neighbor is a different story. They ripped up her yard and drive for new line and stopped work Friday.

She has a big maple tree and they dozed out the roots on the north side of the tree. (big tree) City streets stop at my house and she maintains the drive with gravel. Told her to take plenty of root pics before they cover it up with dirt and inform city hall.

I'm scared the tree will blow over with no roots on the north side. What do you all think?

 

[doitmyself]

You make it sound like the damage extended past the legal right-of-way into her yard. In that case, I would think that they are responsible for reparations. Yes, document everything. Get a certified arborist there for legal and tree care backup.

One action that might help (without seeing pictures) is to have a qualified arborist prune the tree crown to counteract the root removal. A properly pruned top will reduce weight, wind catching ability, water and nutrient needs. It will give the tree a better chance to recover and develop new roots to support the tree by adjusting crown/root ratio. For the next few years, maybe some fertilizer and watering (drought periods) will help.

Again, document everything and hire a tree expert to guide her through both the tree and legal issues (on the city's dime, of course).

 

[GRUMPYDUDE2]

Good advise - Told her to take plenty of root pics before they cover it up with dirt and inform city hall.

My experience with this situation is, sadly, the tree has very little chance of surviving.
And yes. it might blow over.

 

[SHOZ]

They should have taken the tree down. It will never recover fully and probably a lot of the north side of the tree will die off. Leaving them with the bill.

 

[Jdeere562]

First off, we live on a dead end street and are the last houses here. It was a really nice shade tree and she would hate to loose it. They are putting a housing development some where west of her and needed bigger sewer line. My neighbors on each side are having real bad luck with trees.

Another old retired lady lives on the other side of me. Probably 6 years ago I was heading out to work. A tree company pulled up in front of her house as I was leaving. We have a small creek that runs thru our backyards and always needs small trees removed, so I thought it was just that.

Came home and her beautiful tree in the front yard was gone and the stump ground down. She was gone at a hair appointment 45 minutes and came home as they were finishing. Tree company missed the house address by 2 houses. OOPS!

 

[Jdeere562]

You make it sound like the damage extended past the legal right-of-way into her yard. In that case, I would think that they are responsible for reparations. Yes, document everything. Get a certified arborist there for legal and tree care backup.

Yes, they maintain their own drives past my house. No city snow removal. They just gravel their drives, mine is paved,
Think she owns 1 1/2 - 2 acres back there. But I have not been in her back yard to check it out.
Told me she sold about 1 1/2 acres to a guy a few years ago. He wanted to put up a large machine shed back there.
City nixed that, said there are water lines and stuff buried where he wanted his shed.

Now he has a 1 1/2 acre lot to mow and get no good out of it.

 

[Creekside]

The chances of it blowing over probably aren’t as high as you’d think. They’re pretty resilient. Source: I run a track loader and have cleared several rows of them.

On the other hand, extreme root damage will very often kill a larger tree. That would be worth working out with the city now in the event that the tree dies. I have no idea how that would work as we haven’t lived in the city for a couple decades.

 

[SHOZ]

If you do something to damage a tree you are responsible for that. Only way out is if YOU damage it yourself. If your neighbor or the city or whoever intentionally digs up the roots on a huge tree, it's incompetent to not take it out or at least acknowledge responsibility for future work.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Came home and her beautiful tree in the front yard was gone and the stump ground down. She was gone at a hair appointment 45 minutes and came home as they were finishing. Tree company missed the house address by 2 houses. OOPS!

Wow! What recourse was there? Did they pay her for the tree?

 

[Jdeere562]

Wow! What recourse was there? Did they pay her for the tree?

They planted about a 6' foot tree. That just added insult to injury.

She made them pull it up and get a larger one. This was probably 15'

But she will never live long enough to see it as large as what they removed.

 

[SHOZ]

They planted about a 6' foot tree. That just added insult to injury.

She made them pull it up and get a larger one. This was probably 15'

But she will never live long enough to see it as large as what they removed.

As a lover of trees one cannot expect to replace a full grown tree. Maybe they should have thrown some cash and apology? Probably a bunch of idiots making the decisions though. and could care less about trees other than having to cut them down.