Sounds like you need expert advice on your tree first before any decisions are made.

Find an arborist for this advice, which may or not be the same as that of your excavator’s. He/she needs to look at the tree, the new grade change, future expectations for erosion, etc. I’m not an arborist either, but my gut reaction is that your tree is a goner. But find out for sure.

Thanks for your suggestion. We have had an arborist out and he said it will take a couple years before we will know if the tree will make it. It’s an oak and he also said they don’t like to be messed with, it is a beautiful tree.

I don’t have any, but I’ll get some.