Due to a hand towel tied low down around my Aspen's trunk, its bark has rotted in a ring around the trunk. I removed the hand towel when I noticed that the leaves were dried out as if the tree were dead. As per this answer, I scraped some bark off above the rot and the tree is bright green underneath, which gives me hope.
Can I save this Aspen and if so, how? Is the rotted bark still functional or will it need a bark graft? I'm no good at gardening and looking for a relatively fool-proof approach if there is one.
