Ive planted 15 nut trees, 3 fruit trees and 7 aspens on my property in the last several years. Thanks to some impressive teamwork by the bears and deer only 5 of those trees have survived.
Bears will strip bark off conifers too so they can eat the cambium. They're a menace lol.
Yeah i see very little of that around here, but its very common on the coast. I have conifers up the ass. The bears can eat the cambium if they want.
Bears are just trying to make a living -- can't hold it against them.
If that shit interests you, a couple book recommendations. "Born under a stump" by hulett, and education of a bear hunter by ralph flowers.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2988480-born-under-a-stump
Both books are about the professional bear hunters who worked the timber farms on the olympic peninsula to address bear damage. Bill hulet was the original, and he kinda passed the torch to ralph flowers. Flowers ended up developing the feeding programs in use today to reduce tree damage from bears seeking sugars in the cambium layers of trees in the spring.
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