What did this damage?

[Bulucanagria]

I took a hike today in the Sutton State Forest in south central MA. It ended up being a little longer than planned as there are no reliable trail maps for this particular hunk of land and the topos are somewhat outdated. There was a point where I had to do some thinking to get back on familiar ground and it entailed an extra mile or two of hiking. I wasn't lost but, then again, I wasn't exactly found!
Anyway, at one point I was in an area where many small trees were damaged like the one in the picture. Most of the damage was within 3 or 4 feet of the ground but this particular damage occurred from 6 - 10 feet up. This doesn't look like tooth damage. It almost looks like hunks were ripped off but there were no large chunks on the ground, only small bits of wood, practically sawdust. Would anyone have an idea of who might do this. I'm thinking porcupine but I don't know why he would climb such a tree in order to eat it. Are the tops more tender and tasty?
I look forward to being educated.

[Equilibrium]

Do you know what kind of tree it was? Maybe it was "saltier" than the species next to it and the porcupine went up up up and out to town on it? They need salt and will do that to cut firewood that dogs lift their legs on. Punk rockers are excellent tree climbers. I dunno what else would have done that.

[Equilibrium]

This pdf lists out their "preferred" tree treats, http://ces.uwyo.edu/PUBS/B1073.pdf This gives you a feel for "whodoneit" in the damage department, Animal Damage Photos toward the bottom.