Trunk damage can girdle trees

We have forgone the Irish Spring soap, human hair and coyote urine for more reliable barriers when it comes to protecting trees from deer damage. Tomato cages, tobacco stakes, wire, spiral plastic trunk wrap, and, yes, an occasional arrangement of lawn chairs have created distance between rutting and browsing deer and the trunks of young trees. This year does not seem as bad as year’s past. I think the barking dogs protecting the sheep (our one remaining chicken) certainly help as deterrents; but we have protected selected trees, none the less.

I like the country and the deer that roam about but I do not like damage to trees, so we have a system. Deer rutting and browsing sometimes rips trees from the ground; other times they just do a sloppy pruning job. Their rutting is the worst as the bucks practice their battle moves on the small trunks of young trees, scraping the bark clean off. If only one side is damaged, we wait; if the entire circumference is gone then we have learned to remove it and move on. They never recover no matter how patient we are. When the bark and cambium layer of a tree is removed all the way around then the tree is essentially girdled. No movement of moisture or nutrients will pass the wound.