Hello UBC Botanical Garden! My friend has 5 pine trees in her backyard that were buried in half a meter of soil during construction about a year ago. The soil has now been removed as the construction is over and she realized that the pine tree bark where the soil used to be is very rotten. These are very nice and not very old pine trees and she's worried about them. The rest of the tree doesn't show any signs of trouble but she is wondering whether she needs to do something about the rotten bark close to the ground to help the pines survive. Thanks in advance and all the best, Kirill
Best to leave it alone. She has already done the most helpful thing by removing the soil. If the soil has killed the bark around the entire tree, the tree will die but your description implies that this is not the case. If a portion of the bark died, it will eventually peel away and the tree will attempt to repair the damage from the margins with fresh wood/bark. That kind of wound can take many years to repair. If no damage occured to the bark, the 'rotten' bit will just dry out and nothing will be worse for wear. In future, rope off areas of your backyard that you don't want disturbed during construction. In the construction industry, every square foot is fair game unless marked otherwise. Don't expect special treatment of your prize roses, etc.
