Concerned employee shares photo of landscaping mistake at office parking lot: 'Been like this for the past 11 years'

After a decade of looking at an improperly cared for tree, an employee finally decided to do something about it.

"Red Maple at my office," they wrote on r/arborists, sharing a photo of a beautiful tree adjacent to a parking lot. "Been like this for the past 11 years."

The problem? It was surrounded by an enormous volcano of mulch, which was piled feet high against the tree trunk.

"Hmm looks like it could use some more mulch," one commenter joked.

Kidding aside, it's surprising this tree was still standing.

Those who park near it may want to reconsider the shady spots since the tree may be weak from disease or decay. It almost certainly has a secondary root system that has grown up from the ground and into the mulch, as roots seek out not only water but also oxygen.

This leads to girdling, in which the roots wrap themselves around the trunk, slowly strangling the tree.

Proper mulching is easy enough when you know how to do it. It takes only two to three inches of the good stuff to help retain moisture in the soil around a tree. That mulch should be spread out in a donut shape as far as the dripline (where the outer limit of the trees' branches line up with the ground).

Don't forget to leave the trunk exposed as well. This may be the most important part: The mulch cannot come in contact with the tree. You should be able to see the root flare (the topmost part of the roots where they meet the trunk and form an expanding base).

Properly caring for these living things is essential to protecting our suffering environment, which is so inundated with pollution that Earth is heating rapidly, threatening plant life, wildlife, and even human survival.

Trees absorb contaminants, provide food and shelter, cool streets and cities, and even mitigate more intense and frequent extreme weather events, including flooding, which is one consequence of our reliance on dirty energy sources.

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