Going way back for this one! One of the earliest things I remember from forestry classes is that trees do not like having their root systems disturbed. Add or remove an inch or two of soil from around an oak, and it will croak. Sometimes it takes a few years. Sometimes it happens quickly. Many have called me to select trees to keep or remove around a building site, and I would tell people to not build in the woods. Build in the open and then plant the trees you want. Some listen, the rest pay big money for tree removals over the next decade.
Here is a newly killed swamp chestnut oak at our county courthouse. It was planted about five years ago. A new parking area is under construction, and the contractors scalped a couple inches of soil from around this tree. The other trees from this planting project were unmolested, and are still thriving.
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Dad had a small orchard of fruit trees. One year, a road realignment project cut within a hundred feet of some of the trees.
The effect was swift on some of the trees. For other trees it was like a slow strangulation
We lost several thirty+ yr old high producing avocado trees. It took me close to five years to save the others.
Even some lemon and lime trees which were much further from the road had suffered. After years of delib rate work they came back to full health.
The experience taught me something I hadn't known; an air root can extend many yards further than you think. My conversations with several botanists confirmed that.
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