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D. Robert & Lorri Franz |
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First off, elk won’t gnaw just any tree. Strong resins course from roots to needle tips in the conifers prevalent throughout western elk country. These resins make both needles and trunks unsavory to elk in all but the direst circumstances. Smooth, soft white aspen trunks are a whole different story.
The skin of aspens is able to convert sunshine to chlorophyll the same way green leaves do on most plants. Even in the heart of winter. So the inner bark—the cambium—stays green year-round. Better still, it has a nutritional value approaching that of grass hay for elk. Small wonder that they eat this cambium with relish, especially during the lean times of winter and early spring.
The shallow flesh wounds inflicted by elk teeth seldom cause a tree real harm. Only desperation will drive elk to girdle aspen, stripping bark all the way around a trunk, dooming the tree to slow starvation. Most of the time the only lasting effect is a stippling of black welts—the elk “graffiti” so familiar to those who chase elk in the quakies.