Expert: Jim Hyland - 10/14/2007

Question
I am currently building a horse fence in Northern California. I have a huge pine tree next to a couple of the post holes I am digging. I hit a large root while digging one of the post holes. Will digging through the root damage the tree? The tree is about 100 ft tall. The hole is going to be about 2 feet deep 12 inches wide, and about ten feet away from the trunk.

Answer
No the digging of a hole that cuts a root will not damage the tree. Root damage from digging a trench close to a tree will damage the root system do to the number of roots cut. One hole this size will cause no problem with the root system or the health of the tree even if it was a large root.