It has come to...

Time to adopt a family of coyotes.
hortster

Funny you say that as there was a family of coyotes two years ago but people where scared and complained so they were relocated.

One actually found a nest of babies and tore them up by my walkway. A felt bad...for about 2 seconds.

Has anyone else had rabbits chew on small tree trunks during the growing season?

I haven't seen it myself, but have seen crabapples, hawthorns, flowering quince and burningbush munched when there is snow covering their forage in the winter. My guess would be that either your bunnies are lazy and don't want to go looking or their favorite forage is lacking...
hortster

Well, nothing at all wrong with saving toads. I try to never run over them, they're rare here now, used to be common.

Back in early May, I saw a garter snake slithering across the grass with a puffed up toad in it's mouth. I held the snake by the tail until it dropped the toad, then rescued the toad. There are plenty of juicy voles in my yard it could eat, not one of my few remaining toads.

As for the rabbits, I've had luck catching them in a live trap baited with birdseed, then taking them at least 5 miles away to a big park or cemetery.

Yeah, during the winter they ravish anything in sight!
They especially like to devour burning bushes.

This is the first damage I have seen during the growing season...munching on a 1" caliper crabapple in mid June just seems odd. Why not go for the burning bushes? Crazy little critters.

Its hard to spot the toads hopping in the yard. I came across 4 of them mowing the yard yesterday. They actually seem intelligent and hop back into the mulch beds. The better half actually likes them after I told her they eat up lots of bad insects, lol.

I'm happy to see lots of fireflys these days too!

I felt a sense of accomplishment last month when in the course of two mowings I ran over two moles.

That's not unusual for me at all. I've had them completely girdle and even gnaw all the way through the trunks of small trees during the growing season. It appears that different individual rabbits have particular preferences, and some are worse than others.
I try to encourage most wildlife on my property, especially amphibious and reptilian, but it's war when it comes to rabbits.

Solution for rabbits:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=rabbit&fnSearchType=recipe

{{gwi:369301}}

Two words...
Terrier mix.

Rabbits suck. They're like furry woodpeckers. Incredibly destructive and they poop all over the place. I've tried traps, sprays, chicken wire. Nothing works. So it's open season. Dogs trained to catch it, drop it and wait for me to get it. That way I'm not picking up brains and guts all over the yard.

So sad...but yet a victory, lol.

I've trained my yellow lab to spot them from the patio door. She is yet to catch one after I let her out.

They've seem to keep to the outer lot line. Once in awhile there is a new stray roaming in the front yard...boy do the new ones high tail it once the dog goes ape shyt with a rumbling growl.

It helps when you have a fence. Most of the time they find a way out but once in a while the dog gets lucky and you should see the look on their face after. So proud they caught one.

The first time both dogs joined in and it was like playing with a rag doll. A very disgusting bloody mess and a big cleanup job. But now it's so gentle that there's no blood shed whatsoever and the skin doesn't even look broken. And it's quick. I'd swear the rabbits are just dying of a heart attack now.

hortster wrote;
It has come to...

Time to adopt a family of coyotes.

Laughing out loud!

I have a darling dog, well she actually ended up going with my wife when they moved out, but anyway, that dog is hell on small critters. She's a border terrier/bearded collie mix. She's bred for hunting vermin. She quickly learned that I consider ducks off-limits, so she won't even look at a duck, but she's all over the squirrels, mice and gofers.

Smart, cute, small, and a lot of fun.

My lazy dog gave up chasing those rabbits after realizing that he can't catch them. Just too fast so he can't be bothered with them. I suppose I better block access under the fence that I found.

And he's part coyote. Good dog but lazy.