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Question 02
 In late October, we awoke one morning to discover our newly planted shade tree had had its trunk damaged in the night. The bark appears to have been stripped off on one spot of the trunk and there is still some frayed bark around the edges. What happened and what can we do?
The symptoms you describe are from a male deer, a buck, rubbing the velvet coating off his antlers at the start of the fall rutting season. This can damage the tree because normally just beneath the bark are important water-conducting vessels as well as the vigorous cambium layer. It is the cambium which is responsible for producing new water conducting vessels and ultimately growth of the trunk. Unfortunately, after damage, there is not much to do, except to clean up the wound. Remove any frayed bark, but do not apply any kind of pruning paint to the wound. If a tree is not damaged completely around the trunk it will likely recover. Protect the tree form further damage by putting a plastic tree spiral around the trunk. Make sure to remove it in early spring so it doesn't girdle the trunk!
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