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I've got a small (and always struggling) apple tree in my yard, which just looked at for the first time this spring and discovered that the bottom foot or so of outer bark is mostly missing.

picture of base of trunk, showing what look like vertical grooves stripping bark

I presume this is unrecoverable. Not a disaster, but a nuisance.

This is in the outer Cambridge MA area.I know I don't have deer. We do have rabbits, and rabbits, and rabbits, and opossums, racoons, and squirrels at least. Skunk. Mice. No porcupines that I know of. Quite possibly foxes/coyotes, whom I'm told have been known to try grabbing apples... but with all those rabbits and a mild winter I can't imagine them chewing on bark.

Can anyone make a reliable guess at what caused this, or do I just chalk it up to "things die"?

keshlam
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You don't appear to have used a tree guard, which would prevent gnawing on the bark of a young tree. Commonly attributed to mice, but could be any several of your critters. Worry less about which critter and more about preventing any of them from gnawing the bark off. Use a tree guard on the next tree until it's a reasonable size with rough bark at the base.

Rodent (&/or lagomorph) damage is very common for young trees in snow without protection.

It might be possible to bridge graft across the damage, but it's a long shot, IMHO.

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/bridge_grafting_as_a_life_saving_procedure_for_trees

https://homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu/factsheets/trees-bridge-grafting-and-inarching/

Ecnerwal
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If it's limited to the bottom foot then it's probably rabbits.

However I'd suggest that that's NOT girdling (which in any case, I think you ought to be referring to as ring-barking): it looks superficial i.e. not all the way to the heartwood, and isn't all the way round.

If it's ring-barked, the tree will die in a year or so. In any case apply a good coat of Stockholm Tar over the damaged area and somewhat above, and as others have suggested consider some form of trunk protection extending all the way to the ground (i.e. covering the grafting callus).

Oh, and if you've got rabbits etc. it's your responsibility to feed them properly rather than leaving them to fend for themselves over the Winter. Poor things >:-)

Mark Morgan Lloyd
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