With no apologies, starting last year I decided, to resort to poisons to deal with the chipmunks, and mice (voles) and squirrels as well. This is in addition to any traps and kinetic lead poisoning that I can inflict.
works well. been doing it for 4 yrs. and so far, no more tree damage. my neighbor lost most of his 30 blueberries to vole damage last winter. he had to start back with new plants. he will follow my lead come fall. war has been declared!!
could try arctic raspberries or native strawberries or a mix of both. you get fruit and they make a nice ground cover. the roots are shallow so they shouldn’t compete with your trees and as a bonus you get some tasty fruit! I’m slowly doing the same in my yard. low bush blueberries work good too but you need a acid soil. they grow great around evergreens. i have brunswick low bush around all my high bush blubes as well as 3 types of lingonberry. once you have some patches established its easy to dig a few from the patch to plant elsewhere. they spread out quickly.
