| [College of ACES] | [University of Illinois] | [Illinois CES] |
I stumbled across your message while helping my daughter with her homework. We live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Area. While I have no suggestion for your problem, I am glad to know you
are in the area, as I have family there. We have one fairly young Live Oak which was imported from Brady.
While not flourishing, it is alive.
Our problem is finding a good arborist in the area. Most of the tree people here seem more interested in selling
firewood than saving trees.
Our house was built on what had been a pecan orchard. It's age is obvious both by the sizes of the trees and the fact that
these are Native, not a more recent variety.
Unfortunately, the lot was "built-up" for the house. As you probably guessed, the trees are smothering. As we totally
re-drew our plans to prevent cutting down these trees, we are very distraught.
Everyone who's come out so far (arborists) have suggested cutting down the biggest one, which happens to shade the house.
We had an idea of renting an auger, drilling several holes from the built-up area down to the roots, placing PVC pipe in those holes
and covering the tops with screen to prevent them from re-filling. Is this totally ridiculous? Is it possible to resuscitate a tree?
Any opinion or reference you may offer would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Lee Jones Clan