Thanks for the update and the pictures! Itâs good to know that your trees healed well. I was curious how they did because Iâve got a ton of rabbit and vole damage to deal with. Iâve got about 200 apple and pear trees in a fenced-in 60â x 60â nursery. The trees are 1 to 4 years old, ranging in size from less than a foot to 7 feet tall, with each one wrapped with a 24â plastic vole guard. Even though the nursery is surrounded by an 8-foot polypropylene mesh deer fence fortified with a 28-inch welded wire rabbit fence, it was no match for the 2 to 5 feet of snow thatâs been on the ground for most of the winter. With the snow higher than the rabbit fence, they easily chewed through the polypropylene mesh, and, in a single night, nipped almost everything down to snow-level (about 30â). The bigger trees are missing big patches of bark, maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the way around the trunk. Oh - and under the snow, on the smaller trees, voles skeletonized everything above - and sticking out of - the plastic guards like piranhas. I saved what I could by wrapping what was still standing above the guards in aluminum foil, made some patches in the fence with poultry netting, and dug a trench in the snow all the way around the nursery. In the process of mending the fence (which took a few days), rabbits got in only once. They ignored all the aluminum-covered trees, and gnawed on raspberry canes instead. Once mended, the rabbits havenât got back in. As for the vole guards, they can only save the wood that theyâre guarding. I wonât know the full extent of the damage until the snow melts. It stands at a little under 2 feet deep right now. Itâs just devastating to see such damage. Heartbreak aside, my concerns/questions are: Will there be new growth (from the scion/variety Iâm trying to grow) if there are no visible buds? Is there anything I should do to keep disease (scab, canker, fireblight) from entering the wounds? Good luck!

"It's a Chicago Fire Burning Bush. Please don't throw tomatoes, because EVERYONE has at least one fat and tall burning bush in their front yard within a 10 mile radius of my house..." It's your property and your decision, but think of it this way...If you saw many of your fellow motorists throwing out trash, would you also throw yours out? Having a Euonymus alatus in your yard is actually a little worse than throwing out litter, because litter doesn't exponentially reproduce, but, like littering on an already heavily littered highway, I guess one could make the excuse. Your state's Department of Environmental Conservation has given that plant a rating of "Very High" for its invasiveness (environmental damage) rating. I agree with Ken, your little dead voles didn't do that damage. Maybe you should club your rabbits. I can't tell if the damaged branches are coming from the main trunk or from ground level. If from the trunk, yes, I'd prune at the trunk (just outside the branch collar). If from the ground, I'd prune at or just slightly above ground level (IF I was going to keep the plant).

"You could use a snowblower to completely bury the Forsythias, and that would discourage the rabbits." That's a great idea! Next time we're inundated with snow we will definitely take your advice. We never even thought of doing that. It was in the mid 50's all weekend so all the snow has long since melted. I went outside to look for vole tracks but I didn't see any. And none of my bushes got even a nibble. Thank goodness. We don't own any guns so shooting the rabbits is pretty much out of the question. Dh and I have never held a gun in our lives so I don't think we could do it anyway. There are SO many rabbits out here, thousands of them, because they all live on 300 acres of that my neighbor owns. Trapping them would be pointless. They have it made because he only mows maybe twice in the summer so they have all that land to themselves.... This post was edited by ilovemytrees on Sun, Dec 22, 13 at 17:21

first.. trap and kill the rabbit ... otherwise he will win ... and dont trap it, and make it someone elses problem ... no paint... no compounds ... tree heal thyself ... what makes you presume you can do better than ma nature ... chickewire or a perforated drainpipe sliced the long way .. and set around the trunk ... a feral cat or two ... has destroyed the bunny population in our area ... used to hate the cats... for pooping in my sand... but now i see the light.. rodents, chipmonks.. bunnies... all populations in check ... whooo-rahhh ... good luck.. ken ps: the spiral thingees will work for a limited number of trees .... drainpipe is cheaper if you have a lot of trees to do .. and keep in mind that you go up as high as snow cover dictates ... a one foot protector under two foot of snow.. wont work ... been there.. done that.. lol