Is my ash tree dead??

lazyman

Hi,
We have an ash tree in our back garden,
It is over a year old and about 10 - 12 foot in height,
Over the winter months, wild hairs have taken a liken to its bark and have scrapped and eating away a lot of the bark,
I have now covered the bark with mesh but the tree now seems dead,
The leaves are all gone brown and withered looking and the bark where damaged is a white/grey colour,
Can I do anything for this tree?
Have i left it too late?
Apologies if i have been vague,
Thanks

looksee

I think it is probably dead. If you remove enough bark from a tree you will kill it, in fact it is one of the ways of killing a tree, to take a ring of bark right round the trunk.

Mothman

Its likely to grow new shoots from below the damage.

lazyman

Thanks for those replies,
The tree is actually about 7 years old but does look dead now,
Is there anyway of building back up the bark again or could i cut it down to below where the bark is damaged and it might grow all over again?
Is there any nutrition injection or something like that i could use?
Thanks

John mac

Nope Its dead.. as mothman said if you cut it down at the damaged part it may sprout new growth.

plant another one. this time put a fence around it.

I lost 6 oak trees and numerous other shrubs including roses, to hares.

so now everything has a 600mm chicken wire fence around .

magicbastarder

do the branches bend with some elasticity or snap when you bend them? if they snap, it's dead.