The squirrels in our yard have been chewing the bark off of the maple tree in our front yard. We had someone look at it, and he said it will probably eventually kill the tree. We have quite a few branches that died this year.
Do squirrels have preferences as to what kind of tree they chew the bark off of? Will we have to worry about this in our fruit trees?
If we eventually replace the maple in our front yard, I'd like to get something potentially edible. Maybe a chestnut tree? Would that suffer the same fate?
We love the maple tree in our front yard, but I'd rather plant another tree than fight with the squirrels unless there is an easy solution. Any ideas?
Jade
While attending grad school at Penn State, I lived in the small town of Pleasant Gap. My wife and I planted a garden in the back yard of the house we rented. Rabbits were systematically destroying our produce.
There were two local brothers living across the street with their families -- one living in the house he was borne in. In discussing my rabbit problem with them, they suggested dried blood. I searched local nurseries, hardware stores, feed stores, etc., etc., looking for dried blood planning to sprinkle it in the garden. I continued to have problems with rabbits and I continued to relate my inability to find the brothers' suggestion with them. They seemingly took great glee at my escapades and the futility of my search.
After several weeks, I guess they finally took pity on my very obvious fundamental stupidity and told me that the dried blood they were referring to was supposed to be the rabbit's. I was supposed to shoot the damn thing ! ! !
Jade,
I’ll assume they’re the ‘orange-bellied park squirrels’ and not our indigenous Douglas, Silver Gray, or "Gray-digger" (ground) Squirrels..? Either way, I suspect they all chew 
I’ve stopped rodents from chewing the base of small trees by coating them with roofing tar. It’s not that great to look at, but it stopped the damage. Also, coating the area with Tangle Foot (the extremely sticky pest control stuff) might help. It’s clear, last a couple months (at least) and can be reapplied when and where necessary.
Wrapping the trunk or limb area with a quarter inch steel mesh screen might work, though ugly to look at – and you’d have to watch for expansion. …Live traps and relocation … don’t know what kind of bait would lure a squirrel – or where to release them? A less PC friend of mine had a collection of Squirrel tails hung with pride on her back porch. Stripping her walnut crop meant war 
A tree I’ve noticed little chewing on has been any of the seven figs I grow. Though once ‘caged’ and buried with leaves to get my youngest two through their first couple winters, mice had begun chewing around their dormant stocks. But when their super-bitter latex-like sap is flowing – nothing touches them!
The last four years or so my Big Leaf Maple trees have been dying in the woods. I’ve yet to contact any officials about it. It appears Sapsucker birds will ring the smaller diameter branches, which eventually kills the top, and eventually the entire tree. I wonder if it’s actually the squirrels killing your branches? Though I miss my maples, their quickly turned into firewood as the surrounding firs fill the gaps. A specimen yard tree would be a different story, whereas a fruit tree would be war 
I’ve stopped rodents from chewing the base of small trees by coating them with roofing tar.
I give the little blighters a coating of .410 gauge game pellets. They chew around the last 10 or so feet of my Doug firs and several years after that in a windstorm, down come all the tops that they girdled. Tree rats is my new name for 'em.
My neighbor doses them as well, although he administers .22 hollowpoints. They chew the krap out of the tops of his oaks.
I"ve heard that in England, its a big deal to eat non-native squirrel meat. Eat a gray to save a red! is supposedly their rallying cry to save their native red squirrel. It's supposedly expensive restaurant fare. I guess you could trap them and drown them. You could say it's just another way to eat your fruit, after it has become part of a squirrel. They said after skinning and roasting them, you have to let them cool to get the meat off because there are so many little bones. It would be fun to talk to someone who actually did it. Down South, they hunt and eat squirrels in a stew.
John S
PDX OR
John S,
I skinned and cooked one last spring. If you get any hair at all on the meat you cannot get it off, very tight union there, so you end up eating a bit of hair with the meat. I understand there are better ways to skin 'em than what I did!
Overall, the meat is very tasty, not like chicken or beef, just very good. Lot of work though to get enough meat to fit into two sandwich fillings! My dogs munched the bones and whatever else was left, so nothing wasted really but the hair.
I spose you could just cook them whole, hair and all, then feed them to the chickens and get eggs from the reorganized molecules 
I still would prefer my trees not being used as a gnawing post.
City of Portland won't like it, but perhaps there's a reasonable argument that B.1. applies - "lawful defense of... property"
14A.60.020 Discharge of a Firearm.
(Amended by Ordinance No. 178428, effective May 26, 2004.)
A. It is unlawful for any person to discharge a firearm in the City or upon its boundaries.
B. This Section does not apply to:
1. A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or property;
2. A person discharging a firearm on a public or private shooting range, shooting gallery, or other area designed, built, and lawfully operating for the purpose of target shooting;
etc.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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