Bill C. wrote in
:

There is a city tree, an American Elm, that has a diameter of about
4'. It is a source of sewer backups, the roots get into the pipes.
This tree is on the tree belt and between two houses. I don't really
care for all the extra trouble because of the tree but don't want to
see it destroyed. Today a neighbor told me that he had poured copper
sulfate around the base of the tree. I understand that this is
poisonous to the tree roots.

Can this really kill a large tree?, it's about 80 ft tall with a
spread of at least 50'. Is there something I can do to neutralize the
copper sulfate? If the copper sulfate does harm the tree what should
I look for and what kind of timetable?

Is there something that I can put around the tree that will absorb the
copper sulfate if the neighbor adds more?

The tree is in MA and I think that this is not legal. Any ideas on
how to best proceed to first save the tree and second stop this nut?

Elm trees mostly died off in the US due to Dutch elm disease,and I've heard
that there's some conservancy group that wants samples from any surviving
elms,so they can clone them and have disease-resistant trees to plant,to
keep the elms from being totally wiped out in the US.
My childhood home used to have a big Elm tree in front,but it died due to
Dutch elm disease.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net