A CLEARING IN THE WILDWOOD : Page 18

Architects have some feeling for trees. Many builders have none. Most of the men on bulldozers and back-hoes develop definite blind spots, if not visible horns. If the earth-moving and fine-grading are within your control, mark the trees you want to save with bright tags or rags. Baffle or board up the trunks of those near work traffic. When your house is staked out, stake out your best trees also. The stakes should be driven and stringed out around each tree beyond its crown area, where its roots run. (See Chapter III.) Have it understood with the contractor that no rapacious jaws or blades are to invade these areas, or any heavy machine treads. Impaction of the soil can damage roots, by suffocation, as badly as cutting or exposing them will. So can piling earth over them more than three or four inches deep, even temporarily. Graders have a way of piling earth against tree butts and then leaving it there on the theory that the fine-grading, by hand, will be done soon enough. It seldom is, and those pile-ups can be fatal after just a few weeks.