#6: Girdling Kills Trees

#1 - Don't Top Trees!
#2 - 1/3 and 1/4 Rules of Pruning
#3 - How to Make a Pruning Cut
#4 - The Value of Mulch
#5 - Where Roots Really Grow
#6 - Girdling Kills Trees
#7 - How to Plant a Containerized Tree
#8 - How to Plant a Bare-root Tree
#9 - Your Street Trees May Be City Trees

Girdling is any activity that injures the bark of a tree trunk and extends around much of the trunk's circumference.

Such injuries, often caused by lawnmowers and weed trimmers, destroy the tree's most vital membranes, the layers that conduct water and minerals from the roots to the leaves and return the food produced by the leaves to the rest of the tree.

“I am myself and what is around me, and if I do not save it, it shall not save me.”
—Jose Ortega y Gasset