Bark rubbed off - what happens to the tree at that spot?

[John P.]

I have a 5" diameter trunk, 18' tall (estimated) Dawn Redwood and early this summer a deer rubbed its antlers on a small section removing some bark. I placed some corrugated plastic around it along the trunk to prevent future damage, as well as a wire fence to discourage walking up to it.

Since bark doesn't grow back, what should I expect? None of the branches above the damage died off during the summer. When the tree trunk gets bigger, will the patch of missing bark stay the same size, will the bark sort of close in around it, or will the patch get larger? It's a beautiful tree, but if this has doomed it, I need to plan for a replacement.

Thanks!

[Southside]

There is a tree / bark sealer that is basically Flex Seal in an aerosol can, it will help prevent bug infestation in such instances.  Basically if no ants got into the would the tree will eventually heal over and be fine.  When it happens again, spray the wound to seal it and help speed up the healing process.    

[petefrom bearswamp]

I had a Red oak that I planted in 1995 and was rubbed a few years later.
It has completely healed but I suspect a degrade inside.
When I was practicing, any injury over 100 sq inches was considered major and was assumed to cause decay

[mike_belben]

Fwiw-  i had a young hickory shade tree keeper in the yard i was trying to have dumptrucks work around while bring tremendous amounts of fill but one did catch it and split the bark jacket in a clean vertical seam, no missing pieces.  But i guess itd be the cambium that delaminated and unpeeled severely from the wet white sapwood beneath like a cigar falling apart.  I thought since it had no severing in a ring fashion that it had a chance.


I immediately ratchet strapped it back tight.  within minutes the tree was closed up and wired but it never bonded back together and the tree died that summer.  The kids had a few tears as harvey the hickory tree went in the wood pile, then promptly forgot all about him.   :D


My point is if you see the wet innards of a poplar or hickory, just forget it. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Lots of things can cause the death of a tree, unrelated to the bark being damaged.  In the case of your hickory, I have to wonder how much damage was done by all the truck traffic.  Soil compaction around roots can be a problem.  The other is I have to wonder if you put any fill around the tree.  I've seen trees die because the root collar gets buried.  I've seen it happen with mulch as well as dirt.  

I've seen logging damage from both the inside and the outside of a tree.  Logging in the spring will damage a lot of tulip poplar.  These can heal, if they aren't too big of a spot.  I have noticed that tulip poplar that has the rainbow colors on the inside often have damage someplace.  It could come from logging or weather related.  

I have some eastern red cedar that the deer seem to like for rubbing their antlers.  These are smaller than your dawn redwood.  They have generally survived without taking any other precautions.  I also had goats that loved to do the same thing on small red maple trees.  They used to like to eat the inner bark.  If they didn't girdle the tree, they would survive.  As the cambial layers expand to cover the damage, you might have some dead sapwood under the newer bark.  In time, it recovers with new layers of sapwood.    

[mike_belben]

The hickory was on a slope and the high side stayed the same, the low side was brought up.  I might have put 4 inches of loose dirt up to the trunk on one side.  Most of the dirt was pushed by LGP dozer and trucks never got on the root bed, im confident compaction wasnt it.    It was fully leafed and doing great then declined immediately after that snag.  I called it quits when the leaves fell off in summer.  

Maybe it would have leafed out the following spring but i was fine to double the driveway and make getting a semi in and out the gate so much easier.

Across the street is a handful of white oaks that never came back after a smash cash and dash outfit logged it in week long downpours that parked 648s anywhere the ledge didnt pop out.  Its been 4 years or so, peckerpoles now, rotted branches falling off. 

[John P.]

Interesting! It's a small patch - about 8 sq inches - but it's also a youngish tree. It didn't go all the way around - but close to 40% of the diameter. I'll keep an eye on it in the spring.

[Ianab]

With a young vigorous tree there is a good chance that a wound like that will seal over.  You are right that bark wont regrow from the spot where it's been knocked off, but the tree will try and expand the surrounding bark and wood to seal over the wound, same as when a lower branch gets pruned off.  Might take a couple of years to "heal". The wound will always be there, and sometimes you come across the signs of this when you are sawing, and will be able to see how the tree has grown around the wound and totally enclosed it. 

As Dawn Redwood fairly durable (related to cedars etc) wood, it should be able to resist serious decay for long enough for a small wound to seal up. 

Would be interesting to take some pictures every few months so you can compare the growth over time.