Photos?

Try posting pictures under comments. Some are having trouble posting them with their first post.

Brenda, your photo's did not show up

insert pix in a reply by using the camera/photo icon below the box you type in ...

include location.. and a history of the tree ... e.g. when planted.. how.. etc ... ken

Try again with the photo.

Right now your photos aren’t showing. Try adding them in the comments. Be aware that it takes Houzz software a bit to reduce the image size and upload it. The signal that a photo is done uploading is that the grayed out image turns full color. Depending on your internet connection it might take a few seconds, or if one lives in a rural area with s-l-o-w internet like me, it might take several minutes. I have to add them one at a time, though it can be several, perhaps 5, in one comment. Once the photos are full color you can hit submit.

Look too large to be mice damage, so guessing probably rabbit chewing.

Was the wire around it all winter? If so then it probably wasn't rabbit.

Mice can get into smaller spaces than most animals but the damage is generally only an inch or two high.

The tree will have to be replaced.

Ugh.. I thought so. We just put the wire around it after the snow melted and we discovered the damage. Thanks for your answer!

Mice and voles can tunnel under the snow and do a lot of damage during winter with no visible evidence at the surface. Being it's so low to the ground and only a few inches high, almost certainly one of those small rodents.

You'll need smaller mesh to stop those. I put on HD aluminum foil around the tree about a foot high to deter mice, in the late fall. This should be removed early in the spring before the warm weather.

The trouble is that the damage is most likely below the graft so any growth coming from the lower part of the tree, below the damage, is not going to be the same tree as what you bought but root stock.