Cedar bark stripped by squirrels, will tree die?

Question

Our massive cedar has been damaged this winter by squirrels who have chewed off ends of branches for nests and stripped off bark from the base up to about 14 feet on all of the trunks. Can this be saved? It's impossible to bridge the girdling. Thank you.

Answer 1

The courses I took in arboriculture stressed that the active part of the tree that carried all nutrients and water up and down the trunk was just under the bark and that girdling a tree would kill it.

What I have seen in smaller trees is that, yes, rabbit damage will kill a tree but it can take a few years.

In our neighborhood a destructive dog ripped the bark off a few mature maples halfway around the tree or more. That was a few years and I am still waiting for my prediction of the death of the trees to come about.

This is a roundabout way of saying "it depends" on the tree and how much bark is taken off. In the pictures the dead bark has been taken off. The live bark and cambium appear to be intact.

There is a good chance that the trees will survive. You can help them by watering if it is a dry spring and protecting them next winter with spiral tree wrap.

An alternate approach is to feed the squirrels in the winter. If they are not hungry they won't bother your cedars.

Answer 2

The pictures don't show any girdling.

There are a few vertically oriented strips that might be down to bare wood, but none that ring the tree horizontally (which is what girdling describes.)

So there appear to be intact pathways from the roots to the branches, meaning the damage is really superficial, and unlikely to kill the tree.

Answer 3

No worry. The outer grey bark is already dead and not functioning in nutrition transport. It only serves as protection, for example, against squirrels' scratches. The inner brown-yellow wood are still well alive.

However, you really should find some ways to keep the squirrels away from further damaging your tree. The simplest way might be keeping a cat to kill them - cats like chasing squirrels very much, as far as I see.