Bear Damage

[RGrizzzz]

Has anyone had any luck coming up with a solution to keep bears out of trees? Sometime in late September or October a bear did some SERIOUS damage to a group of half a dozen chestnut trees. The trees are about 10 years old and producing, but don't have limbs strong enough to hold bears. Some had lateral branches broken off and others had the central leader(s) completely snapped off 8' high. I know the trees should recover, but it's disheartening seeing how badly they're damaged. Some had 5' weld wire cages still surrounding the trunks while others did. I'm thinking something like a smell spray could dissuade them from climbing the trees if it were sprayed on the trunk. With many of our fruit trees coming into production soon, I'd like to find a solution that can last for a few weeks. I'm content with them pulling/breaking branches they can reach from the ground. I just want to keep them off the trunks.

 

[rogersb]

I had a 9 foot pear tree snapped off at 3 feet, a 15 footer taken apart to basically 5 feet, and a 3rd tree almost 15 feet half uprooted. Anything anyone has would be appreciated.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I have an apple orchard in an area with extremely high bear numbers and it is challenging. Nothing I've tried works, so I just accept the damage and try to overwhelm the bears with large numbers of trees. Plant more trees than you need and don't bother pruning them because the bears will rip off large branches and you need those extra branches. It has been fairly successful and I'm finally able to the point where my trees are growing more new branches than the bear can tear down.

 

[Feelslikefar.]

Would a hot fence work or would they just run through it and destroy it?
I had a neighbor who used a 3-4 strand high fence around his bee hives for a while because of bears.
He eventually gave up the hives, but I don't know if they were the reason or not.

 

[RGrizzzz]

I have an apple orchard in an area with extremely high bear numbers and it is challenging. Nothing I've tried works, so I just accept the damage and try to overwhelm the bears with large numbers of trees. Plant more trees than you need and don't bother pruning them because the bears will rip off large branches and you need those extra branches. It has been fairly successful and I'm finally able to the point where my trees are growing more new branches than the bear can tear down.

Out of curiosity, what have you tried?

A hot fence won't work because the trees are fairly scattered. We do want critters to get the mast, but once it drops.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Out of curiosity, what have you tried?

A hot fence won't work because the trees are fairly scattered. We do want critters to get the mast, but once it drops.

Welded wire fence, concrete rebar fencing, barbed wire wrapped around fenceposts around trees.

The bears in my area rip the tops off 50 year old bur oak and black cherry trees when they are hungry for acorns and cherries, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. When you just have a couple fruit trees, they will visit frequently and damage them faster than they can grow back.

I have around 100 apple trees now and the bears still do a lot of damage, but they can't keep up with the annual tree growth. They will still occasionally rip off a main branch or two off several trees per year, but the trees will recover and there are plenty of other trees producing in the meantime.

 

[bigboreblr]

Though not perfect, annual pruning helps. Make the branches you got stronger........

I got a 375 H&H that can do bear damage....

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Though not perfect, annual pruning helps. Make the branches you got stronger........

I got a 375 H&H that can do bear damage....

A Penn State prof in the fruit tree dept. told me the same thing about pruning. I asked him about how to make long, "whippy" sagging branches stronger - he said to prune them. Scaffold limbs get thicker & woodier.

Like Ben.MN/WI said above, we over-planted the numbers of fruit trees to try to keep ahead of the bears. We've had a couple get damaged so far, but they grow new limbs. The main thing is to grow them big enough so any damage can be overcome by the tree themselves. That's the goal. We selected rootstocks that would grow big, woody, full-sized trees to achieve that goal. The trick is protecting them in the early years to get them well-established and big enough to grow new limbs if bears hit them. One thing that helps keep the bear pressure down at our place is miles of oak trees / acorns with high fat content. Bears will go for them over apples to fatten up for winter. Another reason to plant oaks for those gents who don't have many.

We've used 5ft. tall concrete re-mesh for cages, staked with re-bar. Not fool-proof, but it discourages younger bears (the most likely to climb) from attempting. We've noticed that older, big bears don't seem anxious to climb like the 80 to 150 lb. ones are. They don't waste energy climbing when eating the numerous drops on the ground is much easier. So is gorging on those acorns.

 

[Rubee]

Hey Bows. What diameter concrete mesh cages do you use that helps keep bears off your fruit trees? I’m concerned that deer wouldn’t be able to reach the ones fallen inside the cages.