What strips th bark off a pine tree 2 foot from the bottom but doesn't damage the actual wood. Was thinking a beaver but they chew the wood as well?

Beavers, mice, squirrels, porcupines, deer, bear...  It's a huge list!  This might help you identify your culprit.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/infd-6k4kaf

It's from the UK, brb with a US link.

Edit:  this one shows a picture of beaver damage where they just ate the bark.

https://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/the-language-of-bark/

Deer !!!!!  They actually are rubbing up against it to scratch their bodies from itching from tiny bugs in their fur.. That causes them to damage the tree trunk and eventually the tree WILL die.

Our family's landscape company has tried many times to keep deer from those trees. Best to loosely wrap it 5 feet high in chicken wire securely and remember to keep loosening the chicken wire every 6-12 months or the bark will grow around it and the chicken wire will strangle the tree.

We have tried to make "fences" further out around the trees to keep them away,  but they still get to the tree to scratch. You have to actually wrap the trunk itself with the chicken wire  so if they try to scratch the wire is too smooth to satisfy that urge . Plus the wire saves the bark from being removed.

If you think it actually could be deer, please don't use anything that will hurt the deer. It's actually part of nature for them to do this. 

We've also seen that here in the UK by black and grey squirrels. We have very few beavers here, so most of the other damage is caused by deer (and then only in bad years when the grazing is bad).