ARBOCIDE in South Alabama
Auburn football: Oak trees poisoned at historic site
I am really sad about this.These were beautiful 130 years old Quercus virginiana, Live Oak trees that for no reason were intentionally herbicide poisoned at Toomer’s Corner in Alabama.
ACM
From the news: “Toomer’s Tree Hug” was about proud tradition; it was about college football — two things residents in this state are rabidly, unapologetically passionate about. And it was an Alabama fan — Harvey Updyke Jr., 62 — who apparently let his passion spiral out of control. Updyke has been charged with first-degree criminal mischief for allegedly using a tree-destroying herbicide to poison the two 130-year-old oaks after Auburn beat the Crimson Tide in November. He was released from the Lee County Detention Facility on bond Friday nigh.
“Auburn has started removing the poisoned soil surrounding the two oak trees at Toomer’s Corner on the university’s campus. Horticulture professor Gary Keever said that the process of putting in fresh soil should be finished Wednesday.Keever said they’re removing soil down to about 18 inches, and samples will be tested to make sure that was deep enough.He said they might know the fate of the trees by this summer or it could take years. “They listen to their own drummer,” Keever saids.
He said symptoms from damage to the trees would likely become visible in April and continue through the summer. That could include leaves yellowing and falling off.”
“What will happen soon is that as those trees begin to try to grow, that growing process will pull water and nutrients up from the soil,” he said. “In the process, it will pull the herbicide up with it. What was absorbed, we’re probably not removing.”
Keever said if the recent warm weather continues, that could accelerate the spread of any absorbed herbicide.
Source: the rachael maddow show and USA today news.
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