everything.. everywhere is late ...

and if you are relying on suckers ... soil temps are lagging also ... where are you?

i would not have fertilized.

and i would not have sealed wounds...

and w/o pix.. i cant go much further ...

about all you can do.. is give them more time ... and find out

ken

If the bark is chewed all the way through and all the way around, they will die. But it doesn't hurt anything to wait and see. I put window screen around the trunks of my trees in the fall, about 3' high and loosely wrapped in case I don't get around to removing it for a while in the spring. It keeps the rabbits and mice away. How about some pictures?

That would be nice if I had some picture. Right now I do not have any picture to show you.
Yes it is all the way around the trunk of the 2 trees and about a foot up. They really did a job on them.

I live in Northwest Ohio near Toledo.
Yes the bark is totally gone in that area on both trees.

I have never thought of using window screen, I used a tree guard, but it was not high enough.

I did put much around the trees in the Fall also.

If you have life in the limbs of the tree wouldn't it be a good sign?

Do they have suckers now with leaves on them? Suckers are a sign of stress, the tree is trying to put out growth to survive.

Yes they had leaves and I cut them off yesterday.

I have a Ash tree that is dieing and will be dead by next year. That is why I cut the suckers off at the bottom, because what you have just stated.

Did I do the right thing to do by cutting the sucker off?

I now believe what you have just said about the suckering part and trying to survive.

The reason why I planted these trees ( Washington Hawthorn, Crabapple, and the Oak ) trees was to attract birds.

Do you have any other trees that I could replace these trees with for a backyard?

I did plant a Wild Black Cherry tree last Spring, any comment PRO or CON on this tree? It would be very helpful.

Now back to the original question, if you feel that these trees are going to die please till me so I can start looking and replace them with another tree to take there place.

I was looking at getting two other trees before this happened.

I was looking a a Paper back Maple and a Teri-color beach tree. Not a fast growing tree.

Does birds like these two trees?

I keep all of my trees and my row of bushes surrounded by 3ft tall green hardware cloth, year round. I also put heavy 2stone rock on the outside of the fencing, to keep the voles from burying under the fence. It wasn't inexpensive by any means, but it keeps out the rabbits and voles, both of whom are rampant here.

I really don't enjoy seeing the fencing, even though the green color does blend in,but it's the only way to protect the investment.

Based on your description of the wounding,I would yank the Washington Hawthorn and Crabapple immediately, but that is just me. I do not have the personality required of someone to keep on fertilizing and caring for trees that are most likely not going to survive. I would replant and start from scratch.

Sounds to me like the top part (the main tree) is dead and the tree is trying to live by pushing up root/trunk suckers.

Wild black cherry trees are susceptible to black knot fungus, but they are good for attracting birds.

"I keep all of my trees and my row of bushes surrounded by 3ft tall green hardware cloth, year round."

How do you weed inside the cage?
Or do you?

I keep small cages around young plants to keep my 200 lb moose of a dog from trampling them, but they are removable for weeding. Otherwise it would drive me nuts!

Birds don't particularly care for either of your replacement choices. If you want to attract birds, consider trees like walnut, hickory, pine, spruce, firs, Mt. ash (Sorbus), dogwoods, serviceberry, birches, hackberry. And most native species will be attractive to local wildlife as well.

Cearbhaill,

We put the fence around the entire row of our bushes, and all the trees, in a way that gives all of them plenty of room to grow, and for me to pull weeds that grow from under our mulch, which is Vigoro white marble rock, the one kind of mulch that does not attract voles.