Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
Posts must ask a question.
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
I think some kind of animal got to it or kids have been peeling the bark, I love this tree is there any way I can heal it or save it? ๐ฅบ
The wound is pretty tall for a bridge graft but I can try doing one (idk if those would work on this kind of tree?) I don't know if those paint on pruning sealants are harmful but that was going to be my first option.
There are earwigs in the peeling area of the wound ๐
How's the tree doing otherwise? If it's been well, I wouldn't do anything. I've had similar wounds on oaks, river birches, willow trees. They just "scab" over, unless whatever happened keeps happening. Mine were storm damage mostly. I'd never use a sealant personally. I had a river birch that split in half around its base when I was young. The wound ended up rotting pretty badly and was home to lots of weird insects, ended up taking steps to dry and taped a trash bag over it in the rain. Now there's just a few inch impression but it scabbed over just fine.
The tree still looks healthy, it was struck by lightning a while ago and recovered from the huge vertical crack in the bark.
I think this was caused by a woodpecker or squirrel and got concerned because the damage is more horizontal. Google made it sound like that earwigs were a sign that it was a goner, but hearing that your river birch survived all that makes me feel less worried now.
โค๏ธ๐ณ