Damaged Oak Tree

[msudawg830]

I live on the Gulf Coast and have a beautiful Live Oak, I'm not sure of the age, but the trunk is very large and it covers the entire side of our lawn and our neighbors. After Katrina we started inserting fertilizer stakes around the tree. It seemed to help but now I have noticed that although it is still producing leaves, it looks bad. The roots are more exposed due to major erosion in our yard from all the water. We are about to move back into our home and will be bringing in lots of dirt and laying sod. From years of experience I know grass won't grow around the Oak, but I would like to know if there is a way to treat this oak and should I try to remove what appears to be dead exposed roots?

[Kisal]

My advice? If you really want to do your best to salvage that tree, hire a licensed arborist. Tell him/her in advance what's going on with the tree. Whatever you do, don't start cutting off "dead" roots! In my early days as a gardener, I managed to kill a lovely old tree by removing "just a few" ( ) of its roots from a flower bed I was constructing.