girdling

It takes precision to harness so much abundance; raising the house to save the sibipiruna, for instance, meant inserting tiers in the terrain to avoid girdling the roots of pre-existing loquats and phoenix palms.

Felling is cutting down the tree outright, while girdling refers to killing the tree by removing its access to nutrients, but not cutting it down.

The zone of Sino-American confrontation keeps expanding: For more than a decade, space has been a domain for potential conflict, with Chinese and U.S. surveillance and attack satellites girdling the globe.

Many adult lampreys make it through fish ladders designed for salmon, but at each of the eight dams girdling the lower Columbia and Snake rivers, their ranks are reduced by roughly 30% to 50%.

I admired the sensuous materiality of the undulating brass-and-glass facade, the riverine expanse of white oak floor, the roughness of the pale brick girdling the auditorium.