Question
I have a silver birch tree that is standing next to my garden path, the roots of the tree are lifting the flags and making the path uneven. Can i cut the roots without damaging the tree. The tree is at least 15years old and stands about 30 feet tall the root is one large root on one side of the tree the cut would be about 3 feet from the trunk of the tree. Any help would be appreciated as i don't want to damage the tree. Thank You.  

Answer
Cutting root that close to the tree will damage the root system and will cause the tree to die back on that side of the crown. You may want to think about raising the path along that area this would give you the path and the tree and it will be a lot less work than taking the tree down or cutting the roots. As long as you do not add more than 6 inches of soil there should be no problem.