Protecting trees from damage by deer scrape

I am feeling more than a little annoyed; I hate being grumpy but today I had a little shock!

I went off on my usual walk with the dogs this morning and, as I always do, I ran my eye up and down the Field Maple trees I had lifted from the woods a year ago.

Temperatures had been higher recently so I was keen to see if the buds were swelling.

To my horror and irritation, sometime during the night, a deer had used two of the trees to rub its antlers on; one small tree had been completely ring-barked while another - one of the largest - had been stripped from approximately three-quarters of its girth.

I had only recently gloated that deer, whilst we see them often, had not been a problem to us - I'll keep my mouth shut in future.

I had hoped to keep the view down the track as simple and natural as possible but I had little choice but to go to the garden centre this afternoon and buy some nylon meshed wraps to protect the tree trunks - it made it worse that they only had black and no green.

All trees are now protected right up to the crown - I just hope the deer don't start chewing the branches instead.

Interesting .PDF: Forestry Commission - managing deer in the countryside

The images were taken in fading light - click on each image to see greater detail.