Question
I have a 25 year old pine tree that sustained damage to the surface roots exposed when my neighbor dumped his construction material on the ground to the left side of the tree.  When the debris was removed after covering the ground for three months, the surface roots were exposed and the neighbor decided to clip them with a pruner.  The long and short of it is that he does not like the tree and has repeatedly told me to have it cut down.  Will his damage to the surface roots exposed on the left side of the tree kill it?  I don't want to lose my tree.  The bark also sustained a gash to it from the backhoe.  Resin is covering that up.

Thank you.

Johanne

Answer
Pines do well if injured if beetles do not attack the tree. If the wound is healing over with the resin sounds like the tree is ok. As long as the crown and needles look green and healthy there should be no problems IF the compaction from future "stuff" is kept off the roots.