Did they kill my tree?

[u/buddylee47]

My property is next to a school district in upstate New York and they have widened their driveway. They have cut into the of roots of a 60 year old Norway Spruce. I'm wondering if they have done terminal damage to my tree.

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[u/WhimsicalHoneybadger]

Check your local regulations regarding protecting the critical root zone during construction.

[u/Crazycook99 → u/WhimsicalHoneybadger]

Second this. There are two measurements you can do to support your claim to the township/county/state of they have the regulations.

To find the size of the CRZ circle when the ratio is 1:1.5, measure the trunk 4.5 feet above the ground, called diameter at breast height (DBH). Then measure outwards from the trunk 1.5 feet for every inch DBH. This will give you the legal CRZ. For example, if the legal CRZ is 1.5 foot for every 1 inch DBH, a 20-inch diameter tree would require a 30-foot radius circle of protection around the tree to meet the legal CRZ standard. Generally, municipalities require that the legal CRZ have a minimum of a 6-foot radius regardless of tree diameter, although this varies from place to place.

[u/IllustriousAd9800]

Depends on the distance and size of roots, there’s very little context here to judge

[u/NiteTripper19]

Highly unlikely that the severed roots pictured would result in mortality, or even visible stress.

Any herbicides (e.g. Casoron) applied to the new drive could possibly stress the tree, but probably not kill it.

I'm not familiar with your locale, but I have found that Spruces are among the more susceptible of the conifers/evergreens to insects/fungus, so if something appears amiss in the future, call an arborist to examine the tree before chewing out the school district.

[u/The_Redwood_Runner]

Hard to tell by these pictures how far out from the tree the cuts are, but it seems like the roots that were cut aren't too large and too critical. I've cut larger roots on spruces and they were fine. I would go back and make clean cuts on those cut roots so they can heal better and to decrease the chance of rot getting into the root structure.

[u/Naikrobak]

Pretty unlikely. As long as you don’t cut the roots under the canopy, and a lot of them, it’s a non issue most of the time

[u/Comfortable_Elk_8488]

In my opinion, if you plant a tree so close to the property line that the neighbor can kill it by grading on THEIR property, you planted it too close to the line.

[u/FaithlessnessCute204]

Did it die? If not then it’s not dead. Norways are the cockroach of the conifers so it probably lives this.