The chewed trunks and gnawed bark sound like the work of Eastern Cottontails. Inner bark is a winter survival food for rabbits, especially when there’s a heavy cover of snow and ice. Two feet is about how high a rabbit can stretch. Some years, when the snow is deep, rabbits chew much higher up the trunk.
Beavers gnaw the trunk off and leave a ragged stump, like a roughly sharpened pencil.
Yes, Kate, there are beavers in the three rivers. I’ve seen beavers at Southside Riverfront Park on the Mon and on the Ohio near the Science Center. River beavers don’t build conspicuous lodges surrounded by water. Instead they hide them along steep banks.