Looks like deer to me, but lets see what others say..

Jeff

They do have a look of "browse syndrome".

tj

or drift from lawn spray ...

road salt???

fertilizer is not going to do anything for the lower parts.. waste of money ... IMHO ...

ken

Deer!

But the trees in the background all have their needles and are brown up to about the same height as well. So those aren't damaged from deer.

It seems almost like there was a spray of some kind done. But they are a long ways from the road.

Interesting damage.......

Mark

It's strange. I don't have a lot of experience with deer, but it looks to me like the are defoliated, not eaten. Also, some nearby arborvitae were untouched.

Deer usually leave bits and pieces missing.

These look complete, just no foilage.

They won't regenerate new growth. See where it goes this year. If the look is not important too you...just leave them. Otherwise....

Dave

Deer. I could take similar pictures in many of the yards around here. Yews and arborvitaes are favorites.

Ditto to deer.

Hollytone won't work; a heavy application of venison would work better.

Resin

I also vote deer browse.

A friend of mine had the same problem with his arborvitae in central NY - they were nice and full until the deer found them, after which they are now identical to those you posted! The deer around here do not leave bits and pieces missing, they completely defoliate trees - even conifers. I had a nice and full 8 foot tall austrian pine whose bottom branches were eaten back to nubs below the ~4 foot browse line. Absolutely no needles/buds left on the braches below with all the branches above untouched. I did not expect them to eat a hard pine back like that!

Yeah, deer. The clue is that everything looks fine above the "browse" line.

A neighbor up the road has (had?) a Christmas tree farm w/hundreds of trees. But now, every dang tree has been browsed just like that. As Christmas trees, his farm is essentially ruined....

"A neighbor up the road has (had?) a Christmas tree farm w/hundreds of trees. But now, every dang tree has been browsed just like that. As Christmas trees, his farm is essentially ruined...."

Well....not ruined, just a major setback. To sell 6', 7', & 8' trees, he'll have to wait until the trees are 11', 12', & 13' tall.