The things that people do to trees.
One Redditor shared a mood-boosting update after they removed a brick wall that surrounded a tree for two or three years.
Astoundingly, the beautiful tree seemed to be in decent shape despite the collar that was choking it.
"Finally got around to removing the brick wall around this tree," they wrote. "What do I do about the roots that were growing in the box?"
"Holy crap!!! That was buried deep!" one user wrote. "The tree will do fine if you remove them."
Others agreed, sharing information about how burying tree trunks is dangerous for the tree as well as anyone or anything nearby.
Trunks are meant to be exposed to air so they can efficiently move water, oxygen, and nutrients from below ground to the top of the tree and its branches. While this tree was tall and full of green leaves, the bottom 2 feet of the trunk were clearly in distress.
The brick box problem was akin to volcano mulching, which does the same damage but without the built aesthetics. And even if almost all its trunk is exposed, a tree can still be doomed if the root flare and lateral roots, which run parallel to the ground, aren't sufficiently free.
Mulch can help trees absorb water, as it retains moisture, but it should not touch the trunk of a tree or be more than a few inches deep; the root flare, where the trunk slopes outward before it meets the ground, always needs to be exposed as well. Otherwise, as the photos this poster shared showed, roots will grow up through the mulch in search of oxygen instead of down into the ground, which can create a girdling effect.
"This is one of the most satisfying posts I've ever seen," one Redditor said. "Thank you OP."
"I like to think the tree went 'ahhhhh,'" someone stated, while others compared the poster's actions to taking off a bra, taking off an underwire bra, taking off socks after a long day, and taking off socks after … well, read this short story: "More like someone taking your socks off after wearing them for 2-3 years and not being able to tell anyone that you can't take your own socks off. So you just suffer in silence until someone notices that you've been wearing the same socks for a couple years and decides to undertake the challenge to get them off your feet before you die."
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