I'm trying to get some trees growing on my place. I have a cotton wood and some bradford/Cleveland pear trees that have been hit pretty hard by deer over the winter.

Do I need to wrap them with tree wrap or leave them be? Help.

what about making cages out of cattle panels that are big enough to keep the deer from reaching thru but small enough to prevent them from jumping in.

I have a roll of wire I will be using this year.

My question is, they scraped most of the bark off of a dozen trees. Do I need to wrap those trees with something to cover the bare trunk or leave it open? Has anyone else had experience with this?

did they scrape the bark off all the way around? if so, get ready to replant ... that is also known as girdling when trying to kill a tree intentionally.

if only partially scrapped off, you might be able to do bridge grafting but that's pretty tricky and normally left to professional arborist. this is basically cutting healthy small branches or healthy bark so they lie flat against the tree wound, cutting a flap into the wound for the healthy branches/bark and positioning the pieces exactly so they fuse together with the trunk.

Do NOT paint with tree paint or tar over the wounded area.

Clean up the scrapes with a knife and cage the trees. Like PMK said don't paint them or cover them with wrap, you'll do more harm then good.

Thanks guys. Looks like I'm going to lose some 2 to three year old trees.

They might make it, you never know.

might be worth a try for the bridge grafting ... do you have pictures of the damage?

Plant quality trees. Bradford pears and cottonwood are diseases waiting to happen.

Bradfords outperformed many varieties in our area during the drought. They survived,

I know cottonwood are aesthetically less desirable, but they are native around our wet areas up here, and are fast growing. I want at least some shade before I die.

Your right Mexican Plum is a lot more hardy flowering tree........