here is the second pic

Something ate the bark off your tree. If its been eaten all the way around the tree will die. If there are parts where it is not eaten all the way around it may live.

The bark is gone from about 90% around the trunk. Do you think the gopher got to it?

I don't know if gophers do that. However rats mice voles and rabbits do it for sure. I'm not saying gophers don't do it. I'm just saying I don't know if they do it or not.

the rabbits do that to my fig trees in the winter I have to put chicken wire around my trees in winter only abought 12inches high.sorry this happened to your tree

gophers eat fig roots for certain: I'm not sure about the bark.

The wood appears to be green so if you put more soil to cover the base of the branches shown It is possiblle that these branches may re-root in 5 to 6 weeks and grow new shoots. Then you can prune the dead part of the tree.

I think ottawan_z5a may be on to something if you move fast. I would pull out that old border and install a 2"X8" or 2"X10" raised bed and fill it with soil. Then mulch it really well. If you keep the soil slightly damp near the trunk at the new soil line it may just root above the damaged portion of the tree.

Though I would expect the secondary main stem on the right to pull through as it is since itâÂÂs not completely girdled. If the other main stem is the same then it should pull through too but if it's girdled all the way around re-rooting it may be your best chance at saving it.

Oh No! It does look like a gopher has nearly girdled the tree! by all means, try to save the tree as suggested by others, but don't forget to get a couple of gopher traps! I put traps out as soon as I see gopher activity (I hate using poison for many reasons).One year a gopher took out a whole row of my beautiful roses by girdling them when dormant- I only realized this had happened when I started to prune them and they lifted clean outta the ground. My figs are in 25 gallon pots now...

Hi,

It is heart-breaking to see a beautiful tree becomes like this!

I would definitely put a lot of soil and mulch at the base of the tree
as soon as possible because a tree without bark is pretty vulnerable! And then put a fence around the fig tree so no small creature can come to chew on the poor tree!

It looks like there is a portion at the crotch that is not girdled.

Also, with a tree that size, even if it is entirely girdled wouldn't you expect some root suckers to replace it?

Put another way, if you sawed it down with a chainsaw before the gophers arrived, wouldn't it grow back from the roots?

Sad to say that trees looks like it's too far gone to save. take cuttings and cut it back hard to 12 or so buds. try to hill soil around the base like ottawan_z5a said. but it's to much plant material to support to save the whole plant. As far as other fig trees in your yard go wrap the bases of your other trees with aluminum foil, put a thin coat of vaseline in the center of the foil. This will help against a lot of things from rabbits to aints. Cheap and easy fix. if it's gophers you can try planting garlic and onions around the base. It looks like a tomato seedling in the photo of the base, a word to the wise plant tomatoes and other nightshades like peppers & eggplant far away from fig trees or RKN can become a problem. Other than that chicken wire would be the way to go. Good luck.