dang... what's chewing up your trees? my puppies take occasional bites, but never that severe. they only eat tip bud.

Live trap followed by swimming pool.

Paul,

Sorry to see this but I think their best chance of survival is to eliminate the problem.
I don't know what you can or can't do where you live but I'm sure there are a few quiet options for you to choose from.

Start taking up archery if you have to.

Terrible to see this. You are going to have to minister its last rites. Well Paul, I should be up and down the State again and see if I can get you a replacement.

I think you should eliminate the problem...A crossbow works rather well

Rabbits?  Hey!  Put chicken wire around your trees.  We have it around every tree on our land.

Suzi

.22, 16oz plastic soda bottle, and some rags. a very quiet solution.

Poor rabbits are hungry, I'd take Suzi's steps of prevention...

After caging your tree use small hand garden hand shovel and slowly scoup dirt away from main at ground level and uncover a node.
What you have going for you as you mention is large root system .
You can cut tree low and it should activate a node way down where you clean out the dirt around the main.
Good luck.

Art only if it was mine i would do that dont want to be blamed for something if it fail
"well Dieseler said" you know what i mean ?

But yes i would if it has a good root system and topside has no chance of recovering.
I would first make sure there are nodes below soil line and yes they will awaken
with patience.

If I were you, I would dig next to it on the chewed side, just enough to lean the plant over the hole, cover the damage area with soil, put some plastic over to warm up the soil, and the entire area will send out roots (sorta like an emergency huge airlayer.  the good side would still feed the new growth and will develop new roots treat it as a newbie. I think you have a chance to repair it.   it sucks! what do you think did that?  I've seen  snail damage looking that way, those are easier to treat.  You have to find what it is that is doing this..  Sorry to see.

Cyber farmer,
I would follow dieselers advice on how to handle the tree.
The damage looks like rabbit to me. I would place a hardware cloth ring around the new growth that is at least eighteen inches high to prevent new damage and for good measure you should mow the vegetation short within 40 feet. The current vegetation is only providing cover that allows the rabbits to feel comfortable.

Good luck

I learned that rabbits like young apple trees the hard way. Now all my trees get chicken wire all around and about 3" buried.

From the first picture it looks like there's damage way high for rabbits. Your comment "And I'm always suspicious of the goats" is a dead giveaway for me. Goats have a mysterious power to that enables them to get where they're not wanted. I think the traditional answer to goats is to put tzatziki on them.

I'm with Grey Smith! But if you decide to not use the tzatziki on them you will have to build a sturdy cage. Perhaps with steel post and something stronger than chicken wire.

I also believe Martin has the correct solution to recovery. With the good root system it should recovery. If there is any direct cambium path from any leaf to the roots I MIGHT consider letting heal a bit. If I did I'd wrap (Air Layer) the lower portion where the cambium is exposed and it might send out roots. The bottom should send something out due to the traumatic damage done.

Oh yeah them rabbits are a genuine pain.
Luigi and Romeo can zig zag with the fastest of them and catch them unless they make it to the fence and out.
They make a funny ee eee noise when caught but they do not harm them.

rabbits are good... but don't over cook them. they come out like microwaved chicken if you over cook them.

Try growing some Piss-Off Plants  (Plectranthus 'Sumcol 01')    around your tree. They are supposed to deter dogs, cats, and rabbits.

Goats?  How often does one have them next door?

Maybe deer?

I use 3 foot high, galvanized welded wire fencing, rolled into a circle, cut 20 window long to fit around a 24 inch tree ring / mulch mat. Not so high to be an eyesore, deer don't want to rub up against it so it doesn't need to be sturdy, and self supporting but I have used rocks in the bottom windows and rebar stuck in the ground before to secure it, but it is still easy to lift off. The cut for each 20 window fence section is right in the middle of the 21st window, leaving a short piece of wire on each end. This is bent around the far window to tie it into a hoop without extra material.

There's also "rabbit wire" fencing from the box stores. It has tighter windows at the bottom to keep rabbits out (not that I ever had an problem with rabbits on any of my trees and I do have rabbits in my yard) but the quality of the fencing is poor, especially after unrolling a few feet.

I had deer breaking branches on my granny smith apple and cherry trees before I added the fencing. I let the branches grow through, as I can always cut away the fencing around the branches easily. They don't even bother the branches sticking out now.

I have lots of critters about; squirrels, deer, rabbits, possums, turkeys, fox, armodillo, moles, but none have been a problem except the deer.

I have few trees in containers in a similar state. A chicken wire did not help. Now I'm wrapping the bark with a piece cut from from a Gibraltar Building Products 96 in.x27 in.x1 in. Galvanized 2.5-Gauge Steel Dimpled Lath found at Home depot.
It is helping as the edges are very sharp. All the ones wrapped with it made it through the winter. In my case I'm not sure if it's rabbits or mice.

Try spiral tree guards...

http://www.groworganic.com/spiral-tree-guards-24-pack-of-5.html