I have a couple beech trees that have all the bark missing where the trunk meets the ground. The damage goes all the way around. Is this rodent damage or something else? Will they live like this? Thinking they have to go.

Looks like our Porky damage. Once the bark is girdled completely around, that tree is toast. Porkies chew as high as they can reach standing. They like Beech nut here also. What is that saw dust from? That damage looks old. A tree needs the lifeline of the bark to survive which supplies nutrients and healing like our veins and arteries do for our bodies. Trees can survive and heal themselves with some bark damage, too much damage it is over.

Best turn them trees into firewood, Aint no saving them!

Bob nailed it. Looks like a porky and that tree is a goner.

Porkies around my camp really prefer beech trees, I see signs of them chewing on beech more than any other specie.

In winter they will nip the ends off hemlock branches.

That tree is dead!

I agree with every thing said!!!!.....jk

Haven't seen porkies this far south in Michigan. There are no tooth marks. Found another tree beech with a baseball size spot of missing bark. Sawdust is from tree removal that I'm doing now. Getting ready to put in chestnuts is the spring.

OK our beech here go some kind of disease 15-20 years ago that kills them half way up. They break in half and the top falls of the stump remaining is dead and decays soon after. Now most of what we have is young beech brush filling up the void. Are they ore resistant we will find out in another 10 or so years......jk

X2

Looks several months old. Any bark chunks under the fallen leaves? Looks like a pivot or turn tree from logging. But I agree with porkie damage.

If it is rodent ie meadow voles then there is always small frasse around, porky's will have what looks like a bear dump and only every other day

I've seen skidding damage do a number on slippey bark, but usually just on one side of the tree (although I've seen worse case scenarios)

yeah, that one's toast...two years ago.

we have porky's in wv now so they are moving south

kind of goes against the whole "climate change" migration theories...

When I see vertical incisor teeth scrapes on trees around here, it is spring black bear damage from them eating the cambium layer.

beech bark rot, is bad in the eastern U,P, , kill almost all the beech trees,

Oh, I thought I saw teeth marks, if it was a porky you'd definitely see teeth marks.

Sure looks like Decay Fungus to me- it you have other beech trees- it might be easier to identify it in the earlier stages- I'm not thinking it's porkie damage.

If it was a porcupine you would likely see droppings close by-- look for some that resemble the old root beer barrel candy ....... I see you are in West Michigan like I am. I have seen porcupine as far south as the Rothbury area........

I have never seen a porkie work on a tree that large at ground level. But I do not have beech trees or eastern porkies. It looks like a disease to me.

Porkies have girdled plenty of my beech trees at camp (NC PA) down low like that. Some are that big too.

I have seen 3 dead porcupines in the the road the last couple years. I don't think we have many, but we definitely have them. I also live in West Michigan. The only damage I have seen was on white pine trunks in the 8-10 year range. I would lean towards what Trapper D suggested.

That actually just looks like a rotten tree. Porcupine trees usually have marks that almost look like scratches and usually they leave little spots of bark, generally porcupine trees look almost spotted. But is suppose that could have been a old porcupine tree. My guess would just be a rotted tree. If it was a porcupine, that tree is a goner.

There is a disease killing beech trees throughout PA It is called beech bark disease Small bugs chew their way into the wood As they work their way through it kills the bark layer and exposes the wood to cause the tree to die I have an ortomental beech tree I planted in1991 It grew fast and was well shaped with not signs of a problem It s dying now and nothing to fix the problem Look up BEECH BARK DISEASE It has the potential to cause major problems to a tree that is a high volume food source to wildlife

i agree the tree is dead,but it sure looks like the bark has been chewed off. that tree in background looks like may have been chewed on also.

Beech Scale disease.

google it !!!

w

I have googled it. Just no good pictures. It's not porcupine damage. I've seen their damage when in northern Michigan deer hunting. I've shot many of those buggers in my youth. I'll have those trees down in a few days.