E,
I've had voles eat off direct-seeded pecan seedlings in nursery rows; plants as large as 2-3" diameter at ground level. They pull right up out of the ground when you tug on them.
Can't offer any recommendations on precluding them, other than close mowing so that they don't have quite as easy a time of moving about undetected by predators - though I'm not at all convinced that they don't also utilize mole burrows to access some plants/roots.

E,
I've had voles eat off direct-seeded pecan seedlings in nursery rows; plants as large as 2-3" diameter at ground level. They pull right up out of the ground when you tug on them.
Can't offer any recommendations on precluding them, other than close mowing so that they don't have quite as easy a time of moving about undetected by predators - though I'm not at all convinced that they don't also utilize mole burrows to access some plants/roots.

Pine voles are capable of doing that and are often quite a challenge to control, requiring fall baiting as they supposedly spend most seasons well underground and well protected.

They commonly damage and/or kill apple trees which wobble after having their roots girdled and eaten.

They once did the same thing to one of my Chestnut trees but left the tap (anchor) root undamaged so the tree survived and eventually thrived- it never got wobbly.

Pecans have a monster taproot sounds like vole damage
best of luck hope tree survives
Mouse traps with peanut butter
under a big rock topped bucket over hole
have helped me with the evil wee scourge voles
harvestman is fall baiting a poison or trap? please recommend best method
MUST take them out before they reproduce this spring

In the past I baited traps with nuts and covered multiple traps with large cement mixing trays that I moved around my nursery through Nov. into Dec. , but this year a skunk kept taking the bait so I got tamper resistant poison bait stations, but the skunk still took poison out of the stations somehow so I had to trap and kill the skunk even though the poison would probably have done the job (bait is intentionally slow acting so anecdote can treat accidental poisoning). The pine voles will come up for the bait or poison if timed right, from my experience.

012 was a tough year... for me and all the wildlife searching for any available food.

ok well I will just stick with my method till I stop catching them
but thanks if I ever get brave enough to try your way wish me luck with the skunk

I probably should have mentioned that pine voles are a distinct species, separate from meadow voles who are responsible for trees girdled just above the ground.

Anyone have any thoughts on the (vole fence( in the link below? Would something like that work? Would voles just chew through it? Would it cause problems for tree roots after a while?

Here is a link that might be useful: vole fence

I use regular chicken wire to protect my trees. By the time the roots get big enough to be bothered by the wire the wire is rusted enough it just breaks apart. My neighbor told me about usng it when he was having trouble with them with his blueberries. Though now I don't have much problems with them since my barn cat loves to hunt them and feed on them.

Voles can easily squeeze through 1" spacing. Even a chipmunk can. You'd need to make baskets with rat wire which doesn't rot quickly.

I've had meadow voles kill several trees (just this winter)... Around here its snow cover that aids them in attacking my trees. They move around freely under a good layer of snow. To me, the larger trees are never bothered/harmed...its the younger trees (quarter diameter? or less) that seem to be the target. They even attack conifers... The best thing i can think to do is trap the heck out of them. They are dumb when it comes to traps and i've killed probably 100 of them the past few years. Just peanut butter and those easy set traps are required. I also use hardware cloth, but that is more for the rabbits (another menace).