be rotted by

陸前高田の海岸で、唯一津波から生き残った一本松が塩枯れをしていたとニュースには心が痛みます。「枯らす、腐らせる」はrot。形容詞はrotten。この言葉はrot offなどの形でPVでも使われます。また人を「衰弱させる」という意味でも使います。（Temple Gate）

Symbolic pine tree doomed due to rotten roots
The Yomiuri Shimbun

RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate--A local civic group has discontinued its efforts to preserve a local pine tree that miraculously survived the March 11 tsunami and thus became a symbol of post-disaster reconstruction, it has been learned.

The group stopped trying to preserve the tree as most of its roots were rotted by seawater, making conservation impossible.

The pine tree, about 30 meters tall, is located in the former Takata Matsubara forest, which the central government has designated as a place of scenic beauty.

The pine was the only tree among about 70,000 pine trees in the forest to survive the March catastrophe.

Since the tsunami, the civic group, which had always worked to preserve the local pine trees, tried hard to save the tree, aiming for it to symbolize reconstruction from the damage caused by the tsunami.

Although the group used iron sheeting to protect the tree and pumped seawater out of the surrounding soil, the Japan Greenery Research and Development Center discovered in October that salt water had rotted most of the tree's roots and efforts to save it would be futile.