Several years ago, my wife and I had some trees cleared from a wooded lot to make room for our new house. Some of the trees were sold, some were stacked up for firewood and the rest, generally the smaller one and the tree tops, were chipped and blown into the tree line. The 2 chip piles were literally 6 feet tall and probably 10 feet wide. Part of 1 pile was resting against the side of a tree and I had intended on removing the "mulch" shortly after. Well, life got in the way and I never removed the mulch...here is the result after a couple years:



Those roots are probably a good 3 feet off the ground and, as you can see, there is still mulch in contact with the tree. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I guess I'll take a look at the base of the tree in the spring. Any advice? The tree is probably 50-60 feet tall and probably 50-60 feet away from the house, so I may have to remove it if it gets diseased. The good news? Those big piles of chips are now nice and composty and full of worms (and some termites).