Second spring for us, noted some small roots girdling the trunk. Dissected deeper to see main trunk roots, secondaries, girdling root origin- cut the later. Girdling roots originated superficially to top main right trunk root in last photo. Kept ground/roots wet. Tree appears healthy. Did I do right? Only with dirt dissection was the true girdling tracing possible but I did disrupt some very small hairy like roots in dirt. Seemed to me there was no real choice for the tree to live longterm, I just hope I wasn't overzealous. Dirt is back now covering roots, watered, mulch two inches from trunk. Time will tell.

First: Look close to base, you can see the circling roots, one cut 2. close up 3. After dissection, more cuts, showing no encircling roots. Four main trunk roots-girdling from right top trunk root tertiaries. Sorry about shadow; it's now smooth trunk.

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