My son's friend got carried away with a machete out in our woods and started stripping the bark from one of our cedar trees. He removed almost 50% of the circumference as shown in the photo. This happened 3 or 4 days ago. We're going to try putting as much bark back as we can and duct tape it in place as I've read on this site. Any tips? Do you think this tree will survive? I don't want to lose it.
2 Answers
No guarantees, I'm afraid, but it should survive if all the bark hasn't been removed around the tree. The RHS have an informative article on ring-barking here.
Deer do similar damage and I have not noticed any trees dying. They like smooth bark to rub velvet off antlers. They attack magnolia , holly, figs and others ; leaves a nasty scar but the trees live. You can't put any bark back . I do nothing except maybe put wire fence around them.