To the Editor:

The beauty of a tree has inspired painters and poets. We live in their midst and delight in the cool and stately ambience of a mature landscape. Yet, a serious threat to the lives of trees has become the prevailing custom.

Sadly, I know firsthand how to kill a tree. Mulch kills trees. (But it also can help them if applied correctly.) Light and air are vital to a tree’s bark, allowing vertical transfer of water and nutrients. The part of the trunk where it slopes out at its base is still covered by bark and should be fully visible and exposed to the air. Mulch, in particular, should never touch a tree’s bark — ever! If it does, it softens it, making it vulnerable to insects, disease, and rot. The bark may start separating from the tree, permanently reducing the flow of water and nutrients.

As if this weren’t enough, there is more. And it’s all bad news. Roots can become oxygen starved, and even water starved, when “buried” by mulch. So the tree begins growing secondary roots — some even grow out of the bark where it’s covered by mulch. These roots wind themselves around the tree itself, growing thicker and tighter as the trunk grows larger, and eventually cut off any transfer of fluids to the tree, essentially strangling it. The tree may take a year or two before it shows its stress. But it will likely die within three to five years if the compost isn’t kicked away and the secondary roots removed.

Please take a look around. How many sickly trees do you see? Both our urban trees and our suburban trees are suffering from this landscaping malpractice. You see it outside public buildings and in malls, as well as in our most exclusive neighborhoods.

So go ahead and apply a couple of inches of mulch, but in a donut, with the “hole” a good three inches from the tree trunk. And tell your landscapers — no more mulch volcanoes!

Judith Budwig

Witherspoon Street