Posted by Nellie Scheffler on April 3, 2006

Q: www.enaturalist.org

Hi,

Thanks for the response, to the above referenced question but these branches are far above what the deer can reach. I'd say 25 ft. off of the ground.

We have extraordinarily talented deer who manage to browse on everything in the yard, but thusfar, none of them have been observed actually climbing the trees (although, I wouldn't put it past them).

The damage occurred over the winter. We can easily see two of the trees from the house and when we first noticed it, we thought that perhaps it was due to branches rubbing against each other in the wind, but then we noticed completely isolated branches without bark, as well. We discussed when we started to notice the stripped branches and decided it has occurred mostly since Christmas.

The branches on the ground we really only see as the snow recedes, but I did find an online site that suggests this may be due to squirrel dental hygiene activity.

We live "in the woods" in northern Minnesota and have lots of other critters around; are there other tree climbers that might be doing this? I considered porcupines, but the affected branches are only about 1 inch in diameter (pretty much all the same size)and stripped all the way to the tips, so I doubt they would support anything that heavy—that's kind of what led us to think it might be squirrels.

I guess until we catch somebody in the act this is still a mystery.

Thanks again.

Habitat: suburban/yard

State: Minnesota

Habitat: suburban/yard

A: >

>

> Hey, no fair! You didn't tell me that the bark stripping was 25 feet off the ground! You're right, deer don't climb trees. We can definitely eliminate deer.

Boy, you have me stumped. It doesn't make sense that squirrels would be trimming the branches as you describe. I too thought of Porcupines once I learned you live in upper Minnesota but you're right again that they wouldn't be stripping the branches way out to the tips. So now I wonder if these are branches that have died and the bark is simply peeling off on its own? Are you sure these were/are live branches to begin with? Basswood has rather large buds so you should be able to see which branches are alive and which are dead based on the buds in winter. I think you have an interesting "mystery" here and I hope you'll keep me posted on what you learn. I want to know too! Thanks for sharing and let's hope you can figure this out.

John Wiessinger ( April 3, 2006)