| [College of ACES] | [University of Illinois] | [Illinois CES] |
I'm glad to see that you're at least thinking about what you might have to do save your"pin oak" before construction. This is the first step. I agree with the advice to hire a certified and/or consulting arborist in your area to help advise you. There may some things that can be done to help insure that your tree survives this deed that your are about to do to it's roots and system. Cut,fill and compaction are one of the worst enemies your tree will have in the construction process. It may be that piers will need to dug and used for your footings to help limit the damage from digging. Also, hand digging may needed instead of a skid steer loader. Know that if the tree needs to come out it will be less expensive now than later, and most tree that suffer from construction damage die a slow death(uss.3-5 yrs). I removed a 33" hackberry that was damaged from construction 20 years before that blew over from root loss. I also know of trees that had proper wheel and spoke tile systems
install 75 years ago th
at are still thriving even with 3 feet of fill.
Main point:
1)I don't know if your tree can be saved
2)Hire a certified/consulting arborist(please be ready to pay him a fee for his/her time is valuable)
3)Look for ISA certification and/or ASCA membership(American Society of Consulting Arborists
4)Do all this before construction and even have the arborist consult with the architect and with the contractors to set up guidelines and to make sure that they are being followed
Good luck
Rusty Denes ISA Certificate #MO-3894