prognosis. how and when will you know if these trees have survived or if it was too late? well, from the very beginning we knew that this herbicide had a proven track record of killing trees. it s been around since the 70s, it s extremely toxic. it has a half life, meaning it breaks down slowly over a 12 to 15-month period. the activity is only reduced by 50%. it will persist in the soil for five to seven years, we have seen the tree s decline over the summer in the heat and humidity of the south alabama site. and while the trees have declined, they re also putting out a new flush of growth. we re not ready to give up on them yet, but the prognosis is not very good. professor of horticulture at auburn university. men working night and day to keep these trees alive.
what we did. we poured it into the root scene and watered it in, the intention with this was to bind the herbicide until we could get around to removing the soil, the contaminated soil. in terms of removing the soil, i know you built a little bit of a barrier around the tree. you have gone to great lengths to get the contaminated soil from around the trees. they re old trees i, imagine you can t just uproots them. what was the process by which you took the soil away from the trees as best you could, while still trying to keep them standing and safe? it was really a two-step process. we built these plastic greenhouses to enclose the area around the two beds the trees are growing in. the purpose of this was to retain any dust that was blown up during the loosening of the soil around the roots. our first attempt at removing
it was really a two-step process. we built these plastic greenhouses to enclose the area around the two beds the trees are growing in. the purpose of this was to retain any dust that was blown up during the loosening of the soil around the roots. our first attempt at removing soil involved coming in with an air spade and is basically the instruments that are attached to an air compressor. and it s used to blast soil off of the roots, and it does minimal damage to the roots. and the enclosure kept us from contaminating other areas. we used this in combination with what i call a super vacuum. this large truck with a hose on it that would suck the loosened soil out and we would carry that to a disposal site. we came back in later, when we realized we didn t get all the contaminated soil out, and we used high pressure water to
i know you used liquid charcoal to try to keep the poison out of the root system. how does that work? well, what we use we use both liquid and powdered activated charcoal. this has a tremendous service area, and it has a hot it has sites that bind other chemicals. what we did. we poured it into the root scene and watered it in, the intention with this was to bind the herbicide until we could get around to removing the soil, the contaminated soil. in terms of removing the soil, i know you built a little bit of a barrier around the tree. you have gone to great lengths to get the contaminated soil from around the trees. they re old trees i, imagine you can t just uproots them. what was the process by which you took the soil away from the trees as best you could, while still trying to keep them standing and safe?
the weekend after the iron bowl, i went to auburn, alabama, because i live 30 miles away, and i poisoned the two toomer s trees. did they die? did they what? they are not dead yet, but they definitely will die. the reason that man allegedly targeted these 130-year-old live oak trees is they are where auburn football fans celebrate when their team wins. they call it rolling the trees, but now that the trees have been poisoned, the university is collecting rolls of toilet paper instead with get well notes for the trees. this is what the trees looked like before, this is what they look like now, tonight, about six months after the attack was discovered. experts in everything from horticulture to chemistry to try to fight the poison and keep the trees alive. they have removed and replaced contaminated soil, trying to