I am in a new development, and my hackberry was planted in late 2022. The first winter was the one where we had a TON of snow and after things melted, we noted that the voles or another critter had gotten to the bark and put a ring around 3/4 of the diameter of the tree. We put a plastic protector on the trunk. The tree grew ok that summer, but this year was a bit late to leaf out and we have a good number of dead branches. I'm wondering if I should just trim these off and hope that the tree does better next year or if this is a lost cause and I should look into replacing it. Thank you for any insight you can provide.