Trees poisoned on Auburn campus

For almost 130 years, the two “living” oaks on Toomer’s Corner have been central to Auburn University’s ecosystem, providing a place to meet, celebrate, mourn, or merely enjoy nature. However, it has been recently revealed that, as of approximately early November, the oaks were poisoned, and may not survive. On January 27^th, a man called in to a Birmingham radio broadcast, claiming to have used lethal amounts of a shrub pesticide on the trees. As a precaution, soil tests were performed two days later, with the results proving conclusive. The caller was telling the truth. In an attempt to help save the trees, charcoal is being placed around the trees’ main root systems; this, scientists hope, will absorb enough of the pesticides for the trees to survive.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/16/alabama.auburn.trees/index.html?hpt=C2