Nature or Vandal?

[99 Mile Creek]

This is the Korean hornbeam sapling I've had on the side of my house and in the garden bed for a year.

My wife thinks this was due to the recent snow and ice we got.

Branches found after running water hose around the tree, beneath snow and ice, atop the mulch bed, leaves curled and brown.

Unsure if this is a rodent or shears.

I also have a hard time believing anyone would want to come over and do this the 'ruin my day' but I've seen stranger things.

Nature or vandal? Rodent? Shears? Ice?

What do you guys think?

 

[99 Mile Creek]

Last photo I took before the leaves changed.

 

[SailDesign]

Rabbit. I lost a couple of plants to them this year.

 

[99 Mile Creek]

We do have a lot of rabbits. Practically the only wildlife in the relatively new subdivision.

 

[The Barber]

I have a rabbit that ate 5 of my chojubai last year. All but 2 of them died from it. Saw him one night last winter, might be the biggest cottontail I have ever seen. Rodents are a pain, a pair of chipmunks kept digging in my pots this year, and gnaw on the roots. They killed an expensive spruce yamadori that will be forever mourned. They kept burrowing in the big box it was in. One I found chewed into pieces and partially eaten by one of our dogs, the other has evaded death as far as I know.

 

[99 Mile Creek]

I have a rabbit that ate 5 of my chojubai last year. All but 2 of them died from it. Saw him one night last winter, might be the biggest cottontail I have ever seen. Rodents are a pain, a pair of chipmunks kept digging in my pots this year, and gnaw on the roots. They killed an expensive spruce yamadori that will be forever mourned. They kept burrowing in the big box it was in. One I found chewed into pieces and partially eaten by one of our dogs, the other has evaded death as far as I know.

That's terrible losing all those.

My trees are always on tables out back and off the ground. Brought them into the garage to overwinter.

I'm glad I decided to wait to put my twin trunk hornbeam in the ground, or it would have been a goner.

Lesson learned.

 

[The Barber]

That's terrible losing all those.

My trees are always on tables out back and off the ground. Brought them into the garage to overwinter.

I'm glad I decided to wait to put my twin trunk hornbeam in the ground, or it would have been a goner.

Lesson learned.

Yeah, problem I have is some of my yamadori are too big for the benches till I get them into pots.

 

[TomP]

Definitely rabbits. They go after my hornmbeams in the ground. On the plus side I have some older hornbeams that are developing neat random trunks I couldnt have done with wire

 

[KateM]

This is the Korean hornbeam sapling I've had on the side of my house and in the garden bed for a year.

My wife thinks this was due to the recent snow and ice we got.

Branches found after running water hose around the tree, beneath snow and ice, atop the mulch bed, leaves curled and brown.

Unsure if this is a rodent or shears.

I also have a hard time believing anyone would want to come over and do this the 'ruin my day' but I've seen stranger things.

Nature or vandal? Rodent? Shears? Ice?

What do you guys think?View attachment 628369

Definitely rodent damage.
That slant cut is what I see on my trees pruned by rabbits. Their pattern is to cut (bite) off a twig close to the stem and then much on it from bottom up. And if the don't like what they are chewing they will drop it and go for another twig on the same tree... and that's probably why you found branches under the snow. They did not like what they bit off and spat it out. Stupid rabbits.