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enter image description hereI live in the West Georgia area. We now have several trees chewed up beginning 5 feet off the ground and all the way around the tree, some to the very top. I found a birch that had a 4 foot section eaten out of the top about 20' feet up. Pines, oaks, sweet gums are affected so far and several people in Troup County have the same issue and no one has any answers except: squirrels, woodpeckers, bears.

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  • Looks like beavers to me?
    – user2766
    Feb 19, 2018 at 9:08
  • Woodchuck and porcupine damage both look similar on the surface to this and at 20 feet off the grounds I would normally think porcupine more to be more likely, but they should be rare at most in Georgia, so I would start with woodchuck. Look for holes/burrows in the area and sightings of woodchuck/groundhogs.
    – dlb
    Feb 23, 2018 at 21:33
  • Welcome to TGO! Thanks for the details and close-up. Have you seen any footprints, or scat, in the vicinity? Could you add pictures of an entire tree or two, including the damaged part. Is the affected bark eaten all the way around? Is there bark on the ground? If so, is it scrapings or bigger pieces? Are the branches and leaves fine? Are these mostly scattered trees, or grouped together? In what period of time has it happened? I'm sorry to have overwhelmed you! The more we know, the better chance we can help!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Feb 27, 2018 at 23:13
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    @Liam: Clearly not beavers for a number of reasons.
    – Olin Lathrop
    Mar 13, 2018 at 12:29
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    Voting to keep open, the marks on the trees look very different.
    – James Jenkins
    Jun 21, 2018 at 18:03

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Quick synopsis:

  1. Beetles infested tree. See circular holes.

  2. Woodpeckers made larger holes to get at the beetles.

  3. Tree died.

  4. Bark fell off, helped along by animals trying to get to the tasty beetle larva.

For more depth, see my answer to the question this is a duplicate of.

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