Bear claw marks on beech (Maine)

On a Thanksgiving weekend hike in central Maine, we were treated to a
stand of diseased beech trees with old claw marks of black bear. We
discovered them after realzing we had taken a wrong turn onto an old
logging road. As we bush whacked our way back to the trail, we found at
least 6 such trees, all within the same few acres. Shown are two of them.
-Janet