@b4cks4w I’ve been doing something similar now, after seeing what they do and what they don’t like. They can reach their necks out quite far though, so I need to have something covering about 6’ away from each tree. Before I figured it out, they had stripped the bark off a redbud, a spruce and a dogwood. The replacements are doing well now.

@b4cks4w When I realized I could do something similar to the “cattle guards” that are across the roads in western rangeland, a light bulb went on. Cattle and deer don’t want to risk injuring their legs.