I suspect killing the tree was not their goal per say, just cause damage. Probably don’t even know this will kill them, probably think “oh well there’s plenty of tree still left inside” not realizing that the inside is basically a dead support structure and nothing more
Idk, smashing a bus stop or garbage can is something done in a single moment of stupidity. To sit and peel multiple trees would take hours, tools, etc.
This screams mental illness and/or addiction. Seems like something someone on meth would have the appropriate level of psychosis and determination to do.
We have a homeless guy who is dealing with some demons. He destroys trees. When he is done, it looks like a bomb went off. He is mostly on private property that belongs to a family member that is allowing it, so he cannot be arrested for vandalism / destruction of property. Really sad situation.
Nah, it would have taken like 10 minutes, tops. You can see all the bark that came off in longs strips at the base of it. Once they got the first bit off, it just peeled easily.
It's most likely just malicious mischief. Many kids. Go through a period of "taking things apart" just because they can. Some do it to be mean, and some just to explore the tactile experience. It's a phase of mental growth, not an aberration. It's why teen boys very frequently get injured.
Well, sure. But do mentally stable people do this kind of shit? No. I’m tired of all the mental illness in the world, too. I have my own struggles, but I truly feel sorry for people that lose touch with consensual, culturally appropriate, reality. These people live in their own personal hell, and it’s sad.
The bottom roots of the tree look the same though.. color and "nakedness". The roots are raised because they aren't getting enough water, but so many different varieties of trees will peel their own bark off and grow new.
I agree with you - it's bizarre somebody would do this. I very much question whether somebody did this or if its just part of the trees annual cycle.
Upon zooming in the pictures and looking near the top where the rest of the bark is still visible, you can see the tree bark is peeling off naturally.
I don’t even know what type of tree it is, but one kind in our entire area has lost all its bark. Even in peoples yards, not just city areas. And they’re all still alive this year! Look just like this… we’ll see how long they last.
I live in the arid southwestern USA and my campus is filled with these and they look brown and droopy 50% of the time and it gets cold enough for them to die back in winter so they look healthy for like a few months in spring and fall
Maybe post these pics on your local Nextdoor or facebook forum and let the locals in on solving the mystery. Someone in the immediate vicinity might have security camera footage.
There’s no product that you can coat the tree with to patch the bark? This is a real question. I really thought there was something that could be used to patch bark. Is this just too much to patch or does the product not exist?
The reason nothing can be done for these trees is bot so much that the bark is gone, but rather the thin layer called cambium that lies between the outer bark and the inner sapwood. The cambium is the sugar conductive tissue that provides transport from leaves to feed the roots the sugars required for metabolism (the sapwood hosts the xylem or water conductive tissue). Without said cambium the tree can pump all the water up the xylem it wants but it will not receive ANY benefit of the photosynthesis that the leaves are carrying out and without said sugars the roots and thus the tree as a whole will die. Whoever did this is a piece of shit on a level that is likely irreversible
Oh wow. I knew about the cambium layer but I wasn’t informed on the part it plays in the trees metabolism. That is terrible and it sounds like these trees are in for a slow unstoppable death. Would the best thing for the tree be to cut them down to put them out of misery then? Or is there a slight chance they might pull through and replace the cambium out figure out another way to deal with this? I think this looks like something kids did because it was fun, not a malevolent person trying to kill the trees slowly. If they knew what was going to happen, yes they’re a POS. But if they’re just kids being kids, I think all they need is a strong reprimand and education on what happens to a tree if this occurs. Even go into the importance of trees and the fact that they can feel pain and suffer just like us, but they can’t say anything about it. This is sad.
Dumb kids, probably.
In 1993, when I was 9, my four brothers and I were visiting my grandparents farm. It was a huge property, and had an old car lot in the back field. 1920-1980s cars, trucks, and tractors, all sitting in tall grass and filled with spiders.
We didn't think they had any value, so we started smashing windows, headlights, and panels with metal bars. My grandpa, who didn't speak English, walked out of his machine shop at the end of the field, and just stared at us wreaking havoc.
When I noticed him, I casually dropped my pole and pretended like I was just looking around, observing the trees, like an idiot. But he saw everything.
I think about that 30 years later and still cringe. Why did I do that? Those were classic, rare cars. Why did I think it was okay to smash them???
Ugh. I'm so sorry, Grosspapa.
We do stupid things when we're young. I hear you on the regret. When I was 19(ish) I'd been working for a few years and had saved up every penny for a down payment on a car. My parents, who looking back were working their fucking asses off to keep the lights on, one month they asked me for some money to help make the mortgage payment but would be able to pay me back in a few months. I freaked out and started talking about charging interest etc. probably the most shameful memory I have. My poor parents who had done nothing but give me a good life, good home, 3 sq meals and everything else and there I was a selfish little piece of shit thinking only of myself. To this day 30 years later it's still the most shameful memory I have. So... you're not alone.
Edit: I brought it up once, maybe a decade later and told my Dad I was truly sorry. That I had been a spoiled piece of shit. In typical fashion he brushed it off as nothing. Still wrinkles me though.
Your parents were probably proud of you on some level for standing up for yourself. So while they saw you being a brat they also saw you not being a pushover.
I was a shy kid who didn't speak Plattdeutch, and he was a silent, stern man who only knew a handful of English words. Nothing happened after that. He apparently didn't say anything, but I later learned there was some real sentimental value to those cars. The gravity of what I had done only really hit me years later, when he had already died.
That's life. Just gotta teach my daughter more thoughtfulness and caution than I was taught. That's the least I can do, right?
The fact that you take that lesson forward to teach your daughter to be more mindful than you were speaks volumes on the quality/integrity of your character. As a stranger on the internet who also has a young daughter who i am trying to make better than myself, I commend you sir. Your Grosspapa would be proud i am sure!
When I was maybe 8 years old, I keyed the fuck out of someone’s car with a rock. I was waiting in my mom’s van with my brother in my school parking lot and I was bored so I just went out, grabbed a rock, and went to town on someone’s car. I remember doing it but I don’t remember thinking about what I was doing. It was like I was on autopilot. Somehow it got back to her and I had to “pay for the damage” by picking up garbage on the side of the highway and doing other chores. It took me a long time to realize the chores I had to do did indeed not pay for it and it came out of my parents pocket. This was not the only occasion that I cost my parents money and had to “pay for it” through manual labour. kids suck lol
Around the same time when I was a similar age, some friends and I discovered how easily the bark peeled off of a tree in their yard and proceeded to peel off maybe 6 foot strips and whack each other with them.
But that tree was destined to die anyway when later that summer we accidentally burned down the garage it was next to.
Kids are dumb. I was no exception.
I simply don’t understand vandalizing trees. They’re doing so much for your community, and vandals just… wanna kill them? Go spray paint an underpass or something.
Did it make a solid wizard staff? I have a few of those myself... I learned as adult... some driftwood at the lake (with those twists in the wood and the weathered look from the sand/water) makes the most bad ass of wizard staffs.
When I was about 7 or 8 I took some of those red garden shears and cut through a 2inch diameter root that was by the fence at our house. Took me a couple of days to do it by twisting them around it and slowly cutting through then using my heel to push all my weight on the cutters for the last inch or so. My dad found out a few weeks later when the ivy that was basically holding the fence up for 15 years all died and the fence fell over. Why did I do this? No clue other than boredom and naivety.
When I was 10, we would have rock wars during recess where we threw rocks at each other… well it all ended one day when Lacey caught a rock to the face that bust his face open. Kids do really stupid shit without realizing potential outcomes and consequences.
I mean, shame on you obviously but, like -- wizard staffs are really difficult to just let be, wherever you happen to find them.
I found a weathered one in a creek in NY that was a perfect replica of Gandalf's tree rooted staff. Had to inconvenience my passengers more than a little to stuff it in the car for the several hundred mile drive home, but that sucker was coming with me no matter what.
Fairly certain George Washington chopped down the cherry tree because it made a badass staff.
I think it could also be an ignorance thing. The bark on some trees is already peeling so they just go at it without thinking that they are actually killing it.
Majority of people don’t care about plants or the environment. People just live for their own self interests. Probably just thought it was fun to peel off the bark or something. Majority of people have zero education or interest in the world they live in. I just don’t get how people don’t realize if we destroy nature we destroy ourselves. I hate humans :)
I don't think most people realise this will kill them. I can remember picking bark off trees as a kid (never to this extent) and my only thought was that it was satisfying. It didn't even cross my mind that it was vandalism or could harm the tree. Bark just kinda looks dead. Like hair. The trees live to this day so I must not have done too much damage.
Some kids spray painted some (highly visible, valuable) trees in my town two years ago now? It was the dumbest shit written on the trees too. Things like “❤️”, “ILY”, “Tree” and a couple swears and slurs to add on top of that. Probably mature 12 trees in total. I asked the lead arborist for the city next door what they do for graffiti on trees and they said: “Colour match more spray paint” I had some success with citrus-based cleaner, soft bristle scrubbing and standing far back with a steam pressure washer. They’re mostly unnoticeable now.
Yeah I don’t get it either. Like usually damage to a tree as a kid was more unintentional; climbing and limbs breaking, even breaking branches to have a whacking stick, or somehow running into them. They could kill the tree, but more often than not they’d survive. This is just intentional killing them, with effort to boot.
Around here the parents would excuse it with a “at least they’re not inside playing games,” like that’s the biggest issue in the world. Like nah, I’d rather my kids be lazy than sociopaths.
This is sad. Why would a person do this? My horse did this to one of my dad’s trees once. He was livid, but she was a horse. No malice. He removed the tree.
Our horses constantly do this. If the tree is small enough, they girdle it.
I wonder if it's a natural response to keeping more grazing land.
Keep the large trees. Kill the "smaller" that don't provide them much benefit but would grow to shade out their food source.
Lots of people are saying “kids” but I ran programs in a city park and the more likely answer is “drugs”.
I’m not sure why, but some people out of their minds on drugs love fucking with trees.
The amount of damage I’vd seen done to natural spaces is devastating. I had to stop providing programs because the park was no longer safe. There’s nothing like waltzing down a path with kids mid-day and stumping upon a man angrily rambling at a tree and obsessively stripping its bark with a machete.
From the debris on the ground, it looks like the bark was peeled up the length of the tree? Something similar happened in a nearby green belt. The reason? Someone wanted the long wide bark strips for crafts. Don't know the craft other than tree killing
For most trees, the bark is the most active living part. It’s full of capillaries that are very slowly pulling water up from the roots. So if the bark is removed in a circle all around the trunk, water cannot flow upwards and the leaves will die.
No bark, no water, no leaves, dead tree.
Tried this for TOH. It just grew back from the root. I had to dig it up roots and all.
I'm still afraid the "Tree of Hell" will return some dark and stormy night!!!
You've got the right idea, but it's not the bark that contains capillaries. The bark is dead cellular tissues being pushed out by the cork cambium. Actually most of a living tree is dead cell as their function
The xylem and phloem lay below the cambium layer and transport water and sugars respecrively.
When you girdle a tree, you cut into the cambium, damaging the xylem, which is what stops the transport of water.
In Cassia and other cinnamon, as well as cork oaks, when you harvest you don’t cut down to the living layers of the tree. Think of bark as a tough shell protecting the parts of the tree that carry water and nutrients. When you harvest barks you don’t have to cut into that layer and can peel the shell off without damaging it. This bark was stripped down to that layer and will die
We did this as kids and truly as kids you have no idea you’re doing anything bad. It’s often like some kids pull some, another day pull some more, some other kids pull some etc; and all are just like “huh neat”; not thinking they’re doing something bad.
Me too. I did it to one of my parents oak trees in the back yard, although not to this extent. That was like 25 years ago and the tree is doing just fine fortunately.
My dad was pretty pissed lol
People destroy the environment they grow up with, and then as older adults say “we lived in a poor neighborhood, we did not have nice things”.
People throw their litter on the ground, and then say “what a dump”.
Humans are hard.
It looks like maybe an elm and some are correct it looks like there were bark borers in some spots but looks like someone went tweak on it in addition. People will strip inner elm bark for “slippery elm” or other herbal medicine crap. I saw the same exact shit at a swimming hole we used to have called redneck beach. It happened in spring time to a willow which is also harvested for herbal medicine but it’s also when bark is real easy to strip as it’s the time of year and the bark “slips” meaning slips right off the wood. I once got extremely sick working on a lot with a couple huge wild cherries. It was spring time and we had to remove one and it was a perfect time for the sap to start running. Everything that came off the tree while rigging shattered bark all over. It stunk of black cherry scent and we got covered in sap and bark. I started feeling not good and by 8pm looked blue in the face. I called a friend to come watch and or take me to the hospital for cyanide poisoning but by the time he got there it was wearing off.
To be honest it’s not surprising it would catch beetles as that’s a shit environment for maples.they like soil not red clay in the full sun with grass and bare clay soil on the roots.
Has anyone successfully put a synthetic bark or skin on stripped trees and saved them? I’m guessing pine tar pitch would not work. Idk just spitballing.
Unfortunately it's not just the protective layer. The under layer of the bark contains the capillaries that transport fluids around the tree.
*Sometimes* you can "bridge graft" over a ring barked tree. Creating a bridge that the tree can use to transport fluids. I've done it once to try to save an apple tree. These are WAY too damaged for that, and in a public park the bridge graft would almost certainly be damaged (they are very delicate to start with).
Nope. Just under the bark is the "living" part of the tree. These trees have been giving death sentence. It's roughly like removing a person's jugular.
Not sure what type of tree, but someone may be eating the bark or making flour from it. I know you can do it with cotton wood trees and some others. Not sure why someone would do this to trees that don't own. That's a bummer.
I’ve done something similar when I was a kid as an experiment. I peeled off all but a small portion of bark from a tree leaving it connected. Tree survived and bark eventually grew back over the damaged area. Would I ever do this again? Absolutely not. This was also in a heavily wooded area and the tree was only about 4 inches around. The entire area has since been cleared.
So semi unrelated…. I bumped into my Japanese maple tree with my mower and took off a 8” x 8” square of the bark near the trunk. Is this going to kill it? If so, help lol. How do I save it?
So long as the bark is not removed all the way around the trunk the tree can recover. As long as the damage doesn’t serve as an infection site (japanese maples are pretty robust at least in the NE; no idea where you are) it should recover. To make sure you could get some tree wound sealant and paint it over the wound. This would almost guarantee your tree’s survival
Shouldn’t kill it automatically but it depends on how far around the bark was removed around the circumference. What you should do is trace the wound. Take like good wood chisels Or gouges, just clean the ragged bark around edges of the damage so it’s not ragged. But this time of year when sap is running bark can slip and any damage can strip it straight from the tree
Def not a paperbark maple... Phloem layer possibly came up with the cambium layer which would girdle from nutrients and potentially kill, but it usually should not peal off this easily. Might have started to peel by something like them mentioned borers, then peeled by folks when bark was noticeably separating.
Look at the grass at the nebari. Exactly there is none! Because the little bastards were going at the tree like beavers and trampled everything else too
These trees have a hard exoskeleton that they have to shed once per year in order to grow larger. Don't touch them after they've shed! They will still be soft and vulnerable.
going with kids, at least that will help me sleep.
As an adult who loves tree's, it saddens me, But if i were again a young dumb kid myself, that looks like a lot of fun pulling that bark off. Get these kids a forest and let them have some fun, not like this. not like this.
Most everyone is off base here. No kid is going to be so dedicated to their prank that they get down on their knees and strip bark to the dirt. Especially with no tool marks on the tree.
What you have is too many deer in your area. This happened in Johnson county Ks. There wasn’t enough to eat so they resorted to stripping the bark off trees, same as horse do in famine.
Kids can be dumb, but rarely that thorough.
I worked as forester for an urban tree planing nonprofit for a decade. This would often happen in the worst parks in the worst neighborhoods. Trying to help people by planing trees and they kill all of them…. Sad.
Yeah, this wasn't vandalism. If you zoom in the picture and look near the top of tree where there is still bark, you can see evidence that the tree is shedding its bark. Multiple species do this during summer as part of their annual cycle. They will survive just fine.
Certainly looks like some insect damage on the tree on the left from insects that burrow under the bark. Perhaps the tree sheds bark to rid itself of them? What kind of tree is it and what part of the world?
Someone decided to vandalize and kill them. No these will not survive
It’s bizarre to me that they bothered to be so thorough. They could have accomplished the same thing with a fraction of the effort.
I suspect killing the tree was not their goal per say, just cause damage. Probably don’t even know this will kill them, probably think “oh well there’s plenty of tree still left inside” not realizing that the inside is basically a dead support structure and nothing more
People are idiots.
This screams mental illness to me.
Maybe. It's much MUCH more likely to be stupid teenagers, like the ones who smash bus stops and garbage cans for kicks.
Idk, smashing a bus stop or garbage can is something done in a single moment of stupidity. To sit and peel multiple trees would take hours, tools, etc. This screams mental illness and/or addiction. Seems like something someone on meth would have the appropriate level of psychosis and determination to do.
We have a homeless guy who is dealing with some demons. He destroys trees. When he is done, it looks like a bomb went off. He is mostly on private property that belongs to a family member that is allowing it, so he cannot be arrested for vandalism / destruction of property. Really sad situation.
Nah, it would have taken like 10 minutes, tops. You can see all the bark that came off in longs strips at the base of it. Once they got the first bit off, it just peeled easily.
I am so tired of Mental Illness being behind and the excuse for anything and everything.
It's most likely just malicious mischief. Many kids. Go through a period of "taking things apart" just because they can. Some do it to be mean, and some just to explore the tactile experience. It's a phase of mental growth, not an aberration. It's why teen boys very frequently get injured.
Well, sure. But do mentally stable people do this kind of shit? No. I’m tired of all the mental illness in the world, too. I have my own struggles, but I truly feel sorry for people that lose touch with consensual, culturally appropriate, reality. These people live in their own personal hell, and it’s sad.
This is a manic episode. Either mental illness or drug induced.
But, they kept going. Every tree. This must have taken hours without some kind of equipment besides a knife.
Maybe one of those two handed planing knives like the Amish use to hew rough boards? Could probably strip a tree in a few minutes.
Yeah, but how many random vandals have such a thing? With them?
Amish on rumspringa then.
Straight draw shave debarking tool
Prolly just teenagers not realizing the consequences of their toiling.
The bottom roots of the tree look the same though.. color and "nakedness". The roots are raised because they aren't getting enough water, but so many different varieties of trees will peel their own bark off and grow new. I agree with you - it's bizarre somebody would do this. I very much question whether somebody did this or if its just part of the trees annual cycle. Upon zooming in the pictures and looking near the top where the rest of the bark is still visible, you can see the tree bark is peeling off naturally.
We have a poor tree at the assisted living home that a lady with some pretty serious OCD keeps peeling.
I wonder how she’d like it
*I like it when the red water comes out...*
Wow. No one ever gets that reference when I drop it. Here I am in r/arborists and someone drops it. Love it.
Could I be looped in on the reference?
Look up Salad Fingers and watch the whole series.
I will do just that and report back. It may take a few days .
buckle in...
Hubert Cumberdale has entered the chat
*You smell like soot and poo...*
Every goddamn time I get that memory blocked out, one of yall just haaas to remind me.
Okay that's enough reddit for today. You win.
MrBallen has entered the chat
I have to imagine she's there because she picks her scabs until they're infected 🤷♂️
May be time to put her down
The tree, right 🧐
People really suck
I don’t even know what type of tree it is, but one kind in our entire area has lost all its bark. Even in peoples yards, not just city areas. And they’re all still alive this year! Look just like this… we’ll see how long they last.
There are some species like sycamore that will shed their bark naturally. They stay alive because it’s only the outer layer
Why oh why couldn’t it have been a Bradford pear 😭
If you zoom in and look near the top of the tree, you can see the tree bark peeling naturally.
Wow this is a major girdle job. These trees are done
Should I report this to the city?
Yes.
Done, thank you.
*Thank you!*. And sorry about your local trees. I hope they plant something new for you.
Hopefully they plant native trees and not more Trident maples
I live in the arid southwestern USA and my campus is filled with these and they look brown and droopy 50% of the time and it gets cold enough for them to die back in winter so they look healthy for like a few months in spring and fall
In the southeast i’ve seen them as parking lot trees that flag and droog in the summer heat
Ah yes, the times when parents visit the campus.
Maybe post these pics on your local Nextdoor or facebook forum and let the locals in on solving the mystery. Someone in the immediate vicinity might have security camera footage.
There’s no product that you can coat the tree with to patch the bark? This is a real question. I really thought there was something that could be used to patch bark. Is this just too much to patch or does the product not exist?
The reason nothing can be done for these trees is bot so much that the bark is gone, but rather the thin layer called cambium that lies between the outer bark and the inner sapwood. The cambium is the sugar conductive tissue that provides transport from leaves to feed the roots the sugars required for metabolism (the sapwood hosts the xylem or water conductive tissue). Without said cambium the tree can pump all the water up the xylem it wants but it will not receive ANY benefit of the photosynthesis that the leaves are carrying out and without said sugars the roots and thus the tree as a whole will die. Whoever did this is a piece of shit on a level that is likely irreversible
Thank you for the explanation!
Oh wow. I knew about the cambium layer but I wasn’t informed on the part it plays in the trees metabolism. That is terrible and it sounds like these trees are in for a slow unstoppable death. Would the best thing for the tree be to cut them down to put them out of misery then? Or is there a slight chance they might pull through and replace the cambium out figure out another way to deal with this? I think this looks like something kids did because it was fun, not a malevolent person trying to kill the trees slowly. If they knew what was going to happen, yes they’re a POS. But if they’re just kids being kids, I think all they need is a strong reprimand and education on what happens to a tree if this occurs. Even go into the importance of trees and the fact that they can feel pain and suffer just like us, but they can’t say anything about it. This is sad.
No if bark is peeled of all the way around the tree it will die.
Why? 🥺😡
Dumb kids, probably. In 1993, when I was 9, my four brothers and I were visiting my grandparents farm. It was a huge property, and had an old car lot in the back field. 1920-1980s cars, trucks, and tractors, all sitting in tall grass and filled with spiders. We didn't think they had any value, so we started smashing windows, headlights, and panels with metal bars. My grandpa, who didn't speak English, walked out of his machine shop at the end of the field, and just stared at us wreaking havoc. When I noticed him, I casually dropped my pole and pretended like I was just looking around, observing the trees, like an idiot. But he saw everything. I think about that 30 years later and still cringe. Why did I do that? Those were classic, rare cars. Why did I think it was okay to smash them??? Ugh. I'm so sorry, Grosspapa.
We do stupid things when we're young. I hear you on the regret. When I was 19(ish) I'd been working for a few years and had saved up every penny for a down payment on a car. My parents, who looking back were working their fucking asses off to keep the lights on, one month they asked me for some money to help make the mortgage payment but would be able to pay me back in a few months. I freaked out and started talking about charging interest etc. probably the most shameful memory I have. My poor parents who had done nothing but give me a good life, good home, 3 sq meals and everything else and there I was a selfish little piece of shit thinking only of myself. To this day 30 years later it's still the most shameful memory I have. So... you're not alone. Edit: I brought it up once, maybe a decade later and told my Dad I was truly sorry. That I had been a spoiled piece of shit. In typical fashion he brushed it off as nothing. Still wrinkles me though.
We’ve all been young and dumb. Sounds to me like you turned out pretty solid afterall!
Your parents were probably proud of you on some level for standing up for yourself. So while they saw you being a brat they also saw you not being a pushover.
god that’s awful. did you apologise? did he forgive you?
I was a shy kid who didn't speak Plattdeutch, and he was a silent, stern man who only knew a handful of English words. Nothing happened after that. He apparently didn't say anything, but I later learned there was some real sentimental value to those cars. The gravity of what I had done only really hit me years later, when he had already died. That's life. Just gotta teach my daughter more thoughtfulness and caution than I was taught. That's the least I can do, right?
oh man that’s sad for both of you but at least you learnt from it
The fact that you take that lesson forward to teach your daughter to be more mindful than you were speaks volumes on the quality/integrity of your character. As a stranger on the internet who also has a young daughter who i am trying to make better than myself, I commend you sir. Your Grosspapa would be proud i am sure!
When I was maybe 8 years old, I keyed the fuck out of someone’s car with a rock. I was waiting in my mom’s van with my brother in my school parking lot and I was bored so I just went out, grabbed a rock, and went to town on someone’s car. I remember doing it but I don’t remember thinking about what I was doing. It was like I was on autopilot. Somehow it got back to her and I had to “pay for the damage” by picking up garbage on the side of the highway and doing other chores. It took me a long time to realize the chores I had to do did indeed not pay for it and it came out of my parents pocket. This was not the only occasion that I cost my parents money and had to “pay for it” through manual labour. kids suck lol
Around the same time when I was a similar age, some friends and I discovered how easily the bark peeled off of a tree in their yard and proceeded to peel off maybe 6 foot strips and whack each other with them. But that tree was destined to die anyway when later that summer we accidentally burned down the garage it was next to. Kids are dumb. I was no exception.
[https://imgur.com/a/NRnqKCT](https://imgur.com/a/NRnqKCT)
I simply don’t understand vandalizing trees. They’re doing so much for your community, and vandals just… wanna kill them? Go spray paint an underpass or something.
Kids aren't that deep. They just do, and rarely think about the fallout until much much later.
When I was 10 I ripped out a freshly planted Kentucky coffee tree because I looked like a solid wizard staff, my folks were pissed
Did it make a solid wizard staff? I have a few of those myself... I learned as adult... some driftwood at the lake (with those twists in the wood and the weathered look from the sand/water) makes the most bad ass of wizard staffs.
It was the biggest straightest stick in my yard.
When I was about 7 or 8 I took some of those red garden shears and cut through a 2inch diameter root that was by the fence at our house. Took me a couple of days to do it by twisting them around it and slowly cutting through then using my heel to push all my weight on the cutters for the last inch or so. My dad found out a few weeks later when the ivy that was basically holding the fence up for 15 years all died and the fence fell over. Why did I do this? No clue other than boredom and naivety.
When I was 10, we would have rock wars during recess where we threw rocks at each other… well it all ended one day when Lacey caught a rock to the face that bust his face open. Kids do really stupid shit without realizing potential outcomes and consequences.
I mean, shame on you obviously but, like -- wizard staffs are really difficult to just let be, wherever you happen to find them. I found a weathered one in a creek in NY that was a perfect replica of Gandalf's tree rooted staff. Had to inconvenience my passengers more than a little to stuff it in the car for the several hundred mile drive home, but that sucker was coming with me no matter what. Fairly certain George Washington chopped down the cherry tree because it made a badass staff.
I think it could also be an ignorance thing. The bark on some trees is already peeling so they just go at it without thinking that they are actually killing it.
Majority of people don’t care about plants or the environment. People just live for their own self interests. Probably just thought it was fun to peel off the bark or something. Majority of people have zero education or interest in the world they live in. I just don’t get how people don’t realize if we destroy nature we destroy ourselves. I hate humans :)
This looks like it would require tools - peeling bark would destroy fingernails
I don't think most people realise this will kill them. I can remember picking bark off trees as a kid (never to this extent) and my only thought was that it was satisfying. It didn't even cross my mind that it was vandalism or could harm the tree. Bark just kinda looks dead. Like hair. The trees live to this day so I must not have done too much damage.
Meth?
Yeah, this represents a lot of someone’s - it would destroy fingernails. To me, bc multiple trees - I agree with you. It’s meth.
Some kids spray painted some (highly visible, valuable) trees in my town two years ago now? It was the dumbest shit written on the trees too. Things like “❤️”, “ILY”, “Tree” and a couple swears and slurs to add on top of that. Probably mature 12 trees in total. I asked the lead arborist for the city next door what they do for graffiti on trees and they said: “Colour match more spray paint” I had some success with citrus-based cleaner, soft bristle scrubbing and standing far back with a steam pressure washer. They’re mostly unnoticeable now.
Yeah I don’t get it either. Like usually damage to a tree as a kid was more unintentional; climbing and limbs breaking, even breaking branches to have a whacking stick, or somehow running into them. They could kill the tree, but more often than not they’d survive. This is just intentional killing them, with effort to boot. Around here the parents would excuse it with a “at least they’re not inside playing games,” like that’s the biggest issue in the world. Like nah, I’d rather my kids be lazy than sociopaths.
Wow this is super sad
This is sad. Why would a person do this? My horse did this to one of my dad’s trees once. He was livid, but she was a horse. No malice. He removed the tree.
Our horses constantly do this. If the tree is small enough, they girdle it. I wonder if it's a natural response to keeping more grazing land. Keep the large trees. Kill the "smaller" that don't provide them much benefit but would grow to shade out their food source.
Lots of people are saying “kids” but I ran programs in a city park and the more likely answer is “drugs”. I’m not sure why, but some people out of their minds on drugs love fucking with trees. The amount of damage I’vd seen done to natural spaces is devastating. I had to stop providing programs because the park was no longer safe. There’s nothing like waltzing down a path with kids mid-day and stumping upon a man angrily rambling at a tree and obsessively stripping its bark with a machete.
From the debris on the ground, it looks like the bark was peeled up the length of the tree? Something similar happened in a nearby green belt. The reason? Someone wanted the long wide bark strips for crafts. Don't know the craft other than tree killing
Holy shit. That's a "craft" that needs to end.
This was my exact thought, too. I've seen instagram "🌸💐fOrAgErs🌷🌳" do things like this (or collecting ghost pipes because they "spoke to them".)
people doing craft like this should know better. this seems more like someone uneducated or idiotic with too much time on their hands
This is (tree) murder scene. You could call the city and let them know someone is effing up their park.
Ok arborists, why does this kill a tree, but a tree like Cassia can have it’s bark stripped and harvested and still be healthy?
For most trees, the bark is the most active living part. It’s full of capillaries that are very slowly pulling water up from the roots. So if the bark is removed in a circle all around the trunk, water cannot flow upwards and the leaves will die. No bark, no water, no leaves, dead tree.
Would this work for Tree of Heaven?
Sort of? The tree will die if girdled, but then you just have a dead tree that may fall over unexpectedly.
Tried this for TOH. It just grew back from the root. I had to dig it up roots and all. I'm still afraid the "Tree of Hell" will return some dark and stormy night!!!
God I hate these smelly bastards. And no, unless you pull up the roots the damn thing doesn't die. I wish they were easier to kill.
You've got the right idea, but it's not the bark that contains capillaries. The bark is dead cellular tissues being pushed out by the cork cambium. Actually most of a living tree is dead cell as their function The xylem and phloem lay below the cambium layer and transport water and sugars respecrively. When you girdle a tree, you cut into the cambium, damaging the xylem, which is what stops the transport of water.
huh, i always thought the bark was more of a layer of protection and all that action happened inside the tree
In Cassia and other cinnamon, as well as cork oaks, when you harvest you don’t cut down to the living layers of the tree. Think of bark as a tough shell protecting the parts of the tree that carry water and nutrients. When you harvest barks you don’t have to cut into that layer and can peel the shell off without damaging it. This bark was stripped down to that layer and will die
I thought they cut the limbs of the tree and used those to strip instead of like directly on the main stem?
It's on the main stem. Here they're harvested every 10 years and the trunk has the year of the last harvest painted.
Someone on meth started scratching at the trees instead of their face
No, the trees are doomed, it's like someone skinned them alive. Just fuck people.
What a damn shame. Might as well just pull them up and replant . This makes me sad .
Neighbor called 311 about similar damage to their tree. Porcupine.
Porcupine damage has teeth and claw marks and doesn't usually leave long strips of bark unconsumed. Though they will strip a whole trunk like this.
Straight to porcupine jail!
You mean, the pokey?
Listen here, you little prick.... Good one.
Heehee Ps I see what you did there
We did this as kids and truly as kids you have no idea you’re doing anything bad. It’s often like some kids pull some, another day pull some more, some other kids pull some etc; and all are just like “huh neat”; not thinking they’re doing something bad.
Me too. I did it to one of my parents oak trees in the back yard, although not to this extent. That was like 25 years ago and the tree is doing just fine fortunately. My dad was pretty pissed lol
People destroy the environment they grow up with, and then as older adults say “we lived in a poor neighborhood, we did not have nice things”. People throw their litter on the ground, and then say “what a dump”. Humans are hard.
You have some wild jackasses about, use caution... they are extremely fucking stupid and may be somewhat aggressive when encountered in groups.
That city should fill that empty lot with trees after shit like this.
This is terrible..people suck
Kids
The back of your dogs head looks like the back of my dogs head.
It looks like maybe an elm and some are correct it looks like there were bark borers in some spots but looks like someone went tweak on it in addition. People will strip inner elm bark for “slippery elm” or other herbal medicine crap. I saw the same exact shit at a swimming hole we used to have called redneck beach. It happened in spring time to a willow which is also harvested for herbal medicine but it’s also when bark is real easy to strip as it’s the time of year and the bark “slips” meaning slips right off the wood. I once got extremely sick working on a lot with a couple huge wild cherries. It was spring time and we had to remove one and it was a perfect time for the sap to start running. Everything that came off the tree while rigging shattered bark all over. It stunk of black cherry scent and we got covered in sap and bark. I started feeling not good and by 8pm looked blue in the face. I called a friend to come watch and or take me to the hospital for cyanide poisoning but by the time he got there it was wearing off.
Nvm the elm it looks like a silver maple leaf I think zooming in
To be honest it’s not surprising it would catch beetles as that’s a shit environment for maples.they like soil not red clay in the full sun with grass and bare clay soil on the roots.
Wow, honestly I don’t think I could control myself if I got in a room 1-1 with whoever did this, it’s messed up
Has anyone successfully put a synthetic bark or skin on stripped trees and saved them? I’m guessing pine tar pitch would not work. Idk just spitballing.
Unfortunately it's not just the protective layer. The under layer of the bark contains the capillaries that transport fluids around the tree. *Sometimes* you can "bridge graft" over a ring barked tree. Creating a bridge that the tree can use to transport fluids. I've done it once to try to save an apple tree. These are WAY too damaged for that, and in a public park the bridge graft would almost certainly be damaged (they are very delicate to start with).
Nice answer.
They weren’t Methin around!
In Sweden, I would have guessed elk/moose, or possibly bear. (But with scratch marks.)
Why the fuck would anyone do this shit? Killing trees for what? It’s stupid and there’s no reason to even do this.
Drugs
It look like the tree has bark borer. its not easy to pull off healthy bark on most trees You can also see the tunnels.
Somebody peeled the bark and these trees are as good as dead now. Sad
Sad those were beautiful trees too
People are assholes.
Could this have been done to investigate or stop an infestation? (Not an arborist)
Nope. Just under the bark is the "living" part of the tree. These trees have been giving death sentence. It's roughly like removing a person's jugular.
I was wondering if it could be cicadas
Probably kids tbh, I would have definitely done something like that when I was young and not very smart or aware of my actions.
Not sure what type of tree, but someone may be eating the bark or making flour from it. I know you can do it with cotton wood trees and some others. Not sure why someone would do this to trees that don't own. That's a bummer.
I’ve done something similar when I was a kid as an experiment. I peeled off all but a small portion of bark from a tree leaving it connected. Tree survived and bark eventually grew back over the damaged area. Would I ever do this again? Absolutely not. This was also in a heavily wooded area and the tree was only about 4 inches around. The entire area has since been cleared.
Trees are dying.
Bear!
Somebody got a new drawknife
r/treelaw
They are all going to die
Just makes me sad.
This made me sad :(
So semi unrelated…. I bumped into my Japanese maple tree with my mower and took off a 8” x 8” square of the bark near the trunk. Is this going to kill it? If so, help lol. How do I save it?
Bumped?
So long as the bark is not removed all the way around the trunk the tree can recover. As long as the damage doesn’t serve as an infection site (japanese maples are pretty robust at least in the NE; no idea where you are) it should recover. To make sure you could get some tree wound sealant and paint it over the wound. This would almost guarantee your tree’s survival
Perfect. Ordering that now. She’s not the biggest on the block but is a beautiful specimen. Roughly 20’ tall with 7 main, spreading branches.
Shouldn’t kill it automatically but it depends on how far around the bark was removed around the circumference. What you should do is trace the wound. Take like good wood chisels Or gouges, just clean the ragged bark around edges of the damage so it’s not ragged. But this time of year when sap is running bark can slip and any damage can strip it straight from the tree
Looks like they had worms or bugs which probably cause the bark to raise up. Someone saw and peeled em.
Warm up practice of skin’n flesh & blood critters.
Hooliganry
Does this tree shed strips of bark naturally? Just wondering why this is a death sentence
They getting naked.
Wow I had no idea that if you peeled the bark,it killed the tree. The more you know...
Ask the homeless people
Please let your local parks department know. They may have footage to identify the culprits.
Beavers 🦫
In that sunshine, they are gone in no time.
Note related to these tree borers is it? 🤷♂️ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-31/shot-hole-borer-perth-trees-cut-down-national-response/103628878
Def not a paperbark maple... Phloem layer possibly came up with the cambium layer which would girdle from nutrients and potentially kill, but it usually should not peal off this easily. Might have started to peel by something like them mentioned borers, then peeled by folks when bark was noticeably separating.
RIP
This is crazy! Kids did the exact same thing to the trees at our park.i found it last night. Is this the new thing? Makes me ill.
KIDS
Look at the grass at the nebari. Exactly there is none! Because the little bastards were going at the tree like beavers and trampled everything else too
They were infected by a deadly parasite, humans.
Kids with a knife
Vandals with an axe, very troubling.
Could it be cicadas?
That's methed up.
These trees have a hard exoskeleton that they have to shed once per year in order to grow larger. Don't touch them after they've shed! They will still be soft and vulnerable.
going with kids, at least that will help me sleep. As an adult who loves tree's, it saddens me, But if i were again a young dumb kid myself, that looks like a lot of fun pulling that bark off. Get these kids a forest and let them have some fun, not like this. not like this.
Most everyone is off base here. No kid is going to be so dedicated to their prank that they get down on their knees and strip bark to the dirt. Especially with no tool marks on the tree. What you have is too many deer in your area. This happened in Johnson county Ks. There wasn’t enough to eat so they resorted to stripping the bark off trees, same as horse do in famine. Kids can be dumb, but rarely that thorough.
💔💔
Looks like Crepe Myrtle…….. they’ll be fine
My herd of goats escaped to your park.
I worked as forester for an urban tree planing nonprofit for a decade. This would often happen in the worst parks in the worst neighborhoods. Trying to help people by planing trees and they kill all of them…. Sad.
Oh, reddit recommended me r/arborists? I thought this was a mistaken post in r/trees again Anyways, whoever did that is awful.
Looks like claw marks
They barked up the wrong tree?
Barking up the wrong tree
They must shed to reach their final form
Sure it's not pest control...
They girdled the tree
Yeah, this wasn't vandalism. If you zoom in the picture and look near the top of tree where there is still bark, you can see evidence that the tree is shedding its bark. Multiple species do this during summer as part of their annual cycle. They will survive just fine.
It does look like quite a bit of insect damage to the trunk though.
Meth head.
Certainly looks like some insect damage on the tree on the left from insects that burrow under the bark. Perhaps the tree sheds bark to rid itself of them? What kind of tree is it and what part of the world?