What is this, and what do I do about it?

[SideHillBill]

Bear damage?

 

[LostInTheWoods]

Maybe a Pileated woodpecker going after bugs? What about somebody shooting at your trees?

Just how big ARE plieated woodpeckers in your neck of the woods?!? Some of these spots are two-and-a-half feet long. We have plenty of woodpeckers around, but I have never seen them do anything like this. Doesn't mean it can't happen, just that I've never seen it.

Trees are all close to the house and we've never heard any gunshots. While, unfortunately, you could never put it past some people doing something like that, I don't think that's what's going on here.

 

[LostInTheWoods]

Bear damage?

That would make a good story around here!

No bears in our part of KY.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Pileated woodpeckers are huge. We have them come up to the trees in our yard. They are very shy. You just hear something pounding the heck out of a tree and you can usually find it. We cut down a tree years ago in the back and there was a rotten stump up about 4 feet. I wouldn't let hubby cut it till that woodpecker quit going over it I like to watch them.

 

[CurlyDave]

Deer will often rub on trees and cause damage, but usually they are smaller trees.

I have never seen a deer rub on an oak, only on evergreens, and small ones at that. The tree is usually 4-5 feet high and about 1-1.5" in diameter. They like to bend the tree over and rub the velvet off their antlers. Frequently it kills the tree, as they rub most of the bark off from 2-3' off the ground up to ~4'.

Elk rub proportionately larger trees, but still nothing bigger than a sapling.

I have seen hundreds of deer rubs, and over a hundred elk rubs.

 

[tugboat-2]

Hi Lost, ... Sorry but I thought they all looked remarkably like trees I have injured with my bucket over the years,.....that is, untill you clarified that it was NOT the cause in this case.

Deer? ..possability,..but when you examine above, below and beside the main wound, you will see signs of (related) trauma to the bark,...small signs yes but "signs" indeed. Some "seem" (to my aged, bespectacled eyes),... to have almost sharp edges on what seems a horizontal "scrape"? (Like a bucket corner did the deep cut and the side of the bucket slid across the tree with light pressure?)

Sorry Lost,...but for lack of any other "ideas",.. I can only compare what "I" see, to the sort of bark damage,... as what would or "could" be a scrape by a tractor bucket. NOT "yours" I realize,...but you mentioned a "dozer"(?) somewhere I believe? Is it possible, the dozer or some "other" machine,.. OR, is there another person authorized, (or perhaps NOT authorized) to operate "your" tractor who may be reluctant to fess up to this? I suppose it's too late to examine the bucket for trace evidence?

I'm even tempted to think at least one site could be last years damage, .. "except" when you examine the surrounding "small" trauma points, they look fresh.

I'm also familiar with tree-ice-storm damage, (always amazed in spring, to find finger thin branches from way up, with the first TWO feet of them, buried straight into the "frozen" earth, beneath 2 feet of frozen snow)!! SOoo glad I wasn't walking by at the time!! I doubt yours is ice-related.

Sorry for the length of this,..but I hope you'll keep us posted if and when you solve this most interesting "Case of the Wounded Trees?" By the way I have found (in my cases), best to leave the wound alone,..Mother Nature seems to be most capable.

CHEERS,
. . tug

PS: Is it possible the local Indians,..or Girl Scouts were simply blazing a trail while passing through your forest enroute the wild west? Consider first what seems unlikely ???

 

[dmccarty]

Some of the tree wounds look old. You can see how the bark has sealed up around the wound. The wounds look like what happens when a tree is hit by a machine or maybe a limb/tree falling against the injured tree.

The last photo is just strange. It looks like there was other pieces of bark "damaged" by something along the trunk. Any kids running around with axes/machetes/knives?

Later,
Dan

 

[LostInTheWoods]

is there another person authorized, (or perhaps NOT authorized) to operate "your" tractor who may be reluctant to fess up to this? I suppose it's too late to examine the bucket for trace evidence?

Nope. Just me. And I haven't hit any trees with the tractor. Yet...

I'm even tempted to think at least one site could be last years damage, .. "except" when you examine the surrounding "small" trauma points, they look fresh.

Some of the tree wounds look old. You can see how the bark has sealed up around the wound.

That's what gets me. Some of this looks old, and some looks new. And on so many trees. Sure, there's no doubt several of these trees were tapped by the dozer three years ago when house was built. But FIFTEEN trees? And spaced so far apart.

 

[studor]

The more I look, the more I am convinced that the damage was started by weather -- there may be other issues resulting from that but freezing and ice storm probably created the first damage. I have some ninety degree "arc" trees from the ice storm and some that bent, blew out some bark and then straightened out and are still growing! (with holes in the bark) Watch in the winter and if strong sunlight hits the tree in that spot for a substantial period of time you will have your answer -- JMHO

 

[LostInTheWoods]

Hmmmm. Found this searching Google....

Trees: Damage


"Other prospective home owners purchase a wooded lot with plans to build a new home among the trees. During the home construction process, however, many trees are destroyed or injured."

"The damage that occurs during construction may not at first be obvious unless the tree's trunk was damaged. In most cases the tree appears healthy but produces little new growth. Stress symptoms caused by tree root damage may take 5 to 10 years to fully develop. The tree initially lives off of its stored reserves --- after the reserves are depleted and the tree is exposed to hot, dry weather the tree declines or dies rapidly."

"Treatment of storm-damaged trees requires wise decisions and prompt action if the maximum benefit from repair work is to be achieved. Repairs come in two stages: first aid for immediate attention; and follow-up work to be distributed over a period of months to several years."


Could be the healing areas are from dozer damage that trees were able to partially heal, but delayed effects of the construction are taking a toll now. Throw in a couple of years of drought and a historic ice storm and voila'....trees with various states of distress happening all at once.