[A companion article to "Protecting Trees During Site Work."]

➤ Inventory any large or unusual trees, shrubs, and wetland areas prior to siting a building. For best results, hire a professional arborist, forester, or landscape architect. ➤ Flag important trees and low branches that might be damaged needlessly when dumping fill, excavating, or delivering construction materials.
➤ Hire an excavation contractor who understands the value of protecting native vegetation and will work with you to ensure that damage is minimal. Choosing a small contracting firm often has advantages, since the same person who meets with you is likely to do the work.
➤ Erect a clearly visible fence around building areas, including driveways and leach fields. Allow room for the excavator to work — at least 15 feet between the house and fence. This will minimize soil compaction and damage to vegetation in that range. Also, do not permit parking of construction equipment or workers’ vehicles in areas where soil compaction can injure vegetation.
➤ Don’t spend too much time and money trying to save trees and shrubs that have only marginal chances of surviving the site work. In general, plan to remove all trees and shrubs trees within 15 or 20 feet of building excavations. But if there’s a special tree that you want to save within the 15- to 20-foot range, an arborist can help you evaluate its chances for survival.
➤ If the grade needs to be raised or lowered near the house, build raised or lowered wells to save valuable trees. To improve chances of success, extend the well out as far as the drip line. On shallow ledge and heavy clay soils, the well may need to extend even farther.
➤ Limit the scraping of topsoil to the area that will be excavated for the building. Stockpile the topsoil away from trees in a flat location that will be easily accessible later, without having to disturb or compact soil to reach it.
➤ On sloping sites, use terracing or retaining walls to maintain grades as close to the original as possible. It is especially important on steep sites to keep trees healthy because their roots help prevent erosion.
➤ If the building site was created out of dense woodland, watch for excessive sunlight exposure and drying in the remaining trees. To reduce sun shock, thin deciduous trees during the winter months, when they will be acclimated to higher sunlight levels. Blow-down is very common on land that has been heavily cleared. If you want to clear a large wooded area but leave a few large trees standing, call in an expert for advice before felling trees — the biggest, tallest trees on a site may not be the best candidates. An arborist should be able to select the trees most likely to survive sun shock and the loss of structural support of nearby trees.
➤ To help injured trees recover, mulch around the trunks as far out as the drip line, water regularly, fertilize, and thin the crown. Hire a professional to advise on treatments.
➤ Unless absolutely necessary, do not stump an area that will remain predominantly wooded. Pulling stumps with an excavator or backhoe will damage nearby trees and soil ecosystems. Instead, remove the soil around the base of the stump by hand and use a chain saw to cut the stump off flush or slightly below grade.

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