Brandywine Maple. Building the rest of the garden bed at the height at the height of the tree.

We have a large red maple next to our house. It's one of our more favorite trees on our property. About two years ago, shortly after we moved in, I decided to turn that side of the yard into a shooting range (shooting from that side of the yard would allow me to shoot into an embankment). The way it's set up, I'm able to shoot from underneath the shade of the red maple tree into the woods to my targets.

I currently have a tarp set up on the ground underneath the tree to catch the shells, but it's ugly and I want to make something more permanent. I'm aware that constant foot traffic over the roots is not the best thing for the tree, however, my options are limited. I'm considering placing gravel throughout the area (highlighted in red in the pictures). This would cover a large majority of the roots, very few of which are exposed.

Directly adjacent to the area where I shoot is a gravel access road that goes to our sheds and greenhouse. I was considering extending the gravel into the shooting area so I can lose the tarp and make the area look nicer. I'm concerned about doing damage to the roots of the tree. I'm aware that excessive foot traffic isn't the best thing, but acceptable locations for a shooting range on our property are limited, so this is where we chose.

My question, would it harm the tree to cover the area (circled in red) with gravel? What are some things I should consider? Thanks in advance for your time and opinions.

I was driving down a highway and for miles all the trees were dying all at the same height. It went on for miles and was not just pines. It was every tree regardless of type.

I walk past this tree most afternoons and I have been wandering what's wrong with it but usually by the time I'm home I forget to post so all you tree guys its your time to shine 😅 the black stuff is about 3m ( I'm from straya orite m8) high from the ground up!

He's dead, isn't he Jim? Paid to have this tree moved last year. Looked great until summer hit then. . .

I’m assuming this is major girdling root.

I’m assuming this tree is about 35 years old

Hi all, thanks in advance for your help. I'm trying to keep this beautiful tree alive but it is very close to the house and at least one large root is right up against the foundation.

Thoughts on if these roots will hurt the foundation, or if cutting this root will hurt the tree? Also, any advice on helping the tree avoid the foundation?

Also, I promise to prune back those water sprouts in winter :)

Brandywine Maple. Building the rest of the garden bed at the height at the height of the tree.

Estimator came out and said i could get another 20 years out of this tree.. They gave 2 quotes 1 for removal and 1 for trimming. I know it has termites/ carpenter ants. What do my reddit experts have to say.

Been in our house for about five years, came with this ash tree. EAB was found not too long ago so I have been using a drench, this year getting quotes on injections, but I wanted to see if these roots would doom it regardless?

I had some arborists over for injection quotes but didn’t dig out the roots I bit more until afterwards.

It’s my only mature tree and fills the space nicely so I was hoping to keep it around :/

Happy to take more pics or dig a bit more or whatever you would find helpful!

(The roots weren’t far down, especially the T shaped thing in the front with those roots they were already exposed)

Crepe Myrtle was planted in this space by nursery we hired when we built and it has now grown too big. Is it even possible to prune it down and back so that it fits the space or is it better to just remove it? I don’t want to hack it off and be one of those people but it’s growing into my house and onto my roof now and becoming an issue.

It died completely back 2 years ago after we had a very hard freeze and below freezing temps and since then the branches have been thin and weak so they fall over when it blooms. I’m not the biggest fan of crepes so won’t be offended if it’s recommended it be removed.

Any recommendations on a better option if removal is recommended? Something native to Texas for sure. I’m also not opposed to just removing completely and having nothing there. I am in zone 9a.

You've got a new maple from the garden center? By all means locate that root flare and plant it at the proper depth.

You've got a beautiful mature Birch tree in your yard? Leave it the fuck alone. It grew the way it is. It won't want you poking around its root plate, FOR NO REASON.

So stop it, stop thinking about it, stop recommending it on this sub. Many of the amatuers posting about the root flare exposing they've done are HARMING the trees that were perfectly fine before.

Can it be an important prescription in certain situations? Absolutely. But really only after its been inspected by someone who knows what the heck they're looking at.

Planted this river birch back in May it came in a plastic pot container which I hear is bad. I just want to know I should take action now.

And this sub has me questioning the root flare issue.
Just bought this house
Rowan mountain ash.
Should I remove the planter built up around it?

Kind of a rough weekend, not an artist, just having fun w my favorite acorn and chalk markers

No bad days in acorn season amirite

I planted this Afterburner Nyssa sylvatica cultivar this spring. In July, a new kid with our lawn service decided to try to murder it with a weed whacker. It hasn't died, and I haven't been able to find the same cultivar in stock near me to be able to replace it, but a family member told me this tree is unlikely to do well long-term with the extent of the trunk damage. There is really only a small strip of undamaged bark, like <20% of the circumference of the tree. Is there any hope here? I haven't pruned any of the suckers from below the injury because I thought maybe I could attempt to select a new central leader if the main part of the tree died. Any suggestions here?

Got pointed in this subreddits direction to ask how to safely hang swing chairs from these trees without killing or harming them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Zone 9B. Supposedly a Redbud tree on the side of my property. It blooms pink buds, has green leaves most of the year, then they turn red in the fall. There's a 6 inch crack in the trunk just below the Y that is probably a half inch deep. An arborist came out and said the bark appears to be trying to heal over it, but it needs to dump a lot of weight. His suggestion was to start cutting branches with the intention of choosing one side or the other and getting rid of the Y shape. Leaning towards the streetside are some large branches almost resting on top of each other I could thin (photo 3). There's a large branch that appears to be dying and didn't leaf at all this year (photo 4), and a branch that is drooping low and probably going to touch the ground next year if I let it stick around (4 and 5). I was going to do all of this around the end of January. Also, the previous owners surrounded it with river rock which probably isn't doing the tree any favors. I just need to carve out the time to dig it out and replace it with mulch.

Any suggestions or anything about this plan that I should run with or change?

As title states, not really sure what's growing on it, but is this it? Do I cut it down or what?

My northern catalpa had its leaves decimated in the last week or so by these caterpillars. Central Ohio. Anything to worry about?

i have never heard of this ever happening when working with Cedar. What happened here? Full obituary pictured:

First 3 photos are from a year ago.

The rest are all from today.

Any advice how to proceed, short term and long term?

There are lots of dead limbs. The scars from two large limbs falling last year seem to be healing.