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Paper Birch - Betula papyrifera
Common names: Paper Birch, Canoe Birch, Silver Birch, White
Birch, Bouleau blanc, Bouleau à papier (French), Papier-Birken
(German)
Paper Birch is a medium sized, single or multiple stemmed,
deciduous tree. In forests a slender trunk with a narrow crown, but in
openings a wider crown spreading out from near the base. Height at
maturity 70'-80' and 10"-12" in diameter, sometimes to 30". Short-lived.
Height growth ceases at about 60-70 years of age; few live more than 140
years.
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The paper birch on the right was grown from seed, and is 26 years
old at this photo.
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Paper Birch grows in climates ranging from boreal to
humid and tolerates wide variations in precipitation. Its
northern limit of growth is arctic Canada and Alaska, in boreal
spruce woodlands, in mountain and sub alpine forests of the
western United States, the Great Plains, and in coniferous -
deciduous forests of the Northeast and Great Lakes states.
The tree is particularly shade-intolerant. Where it occurs in
old-growth forests, it is restricted to sunny glades and
openings. Birches are often the first trees to repopulate
logged, disturbed or burned acreage. Where such populations
exist, they often crowd out other species, and form pure stands
of silvery-white barked trees. In this habit, they are quite
like the Black Walnut; walnuts are generally among the first
trees sprouting in disturbed places of the woodlots and
bottomlands of the American Midwest. Birches grow in almost any
soil, but best in deep, well-drained alluvial soils with a sandy
component; such soils are common at glacial deposits. It grows
on a wide range of soil textures from gravels to silts, and
grows on organic bog and peat soils. |
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The birches have long been popular
ornamental trees in America, chiefly in the northern United
States and Canada. Several are native Americans, but many
species have been introduced from Europe and Asia. In
general, they are graceful trees, the most popular being
those with white bark on trunks and larger branches. Some of
the others are very serviceable, either because they will
grow well in wet soil or because they will exist as well as
any other trees, or better, in dry, poor soils.
Animals dependant on
Birch
- Moose: Important browse throughout most of
range. Nutritional quality is poor in winter,
but is important to wintering moose because of
its sheer abundance in young stands.
- White-tailed Deer: though considered a
"secondary-choice food", it is an important
dietary component. In Minnesota, white-tailed
deer eat considerable amounts of paper birch
leaves in the fall.
- Snowshoe hare browse paper birch seedlings
and saplings.
- Porcupines feed on the inner bark
- Beaver also eat it though generally prefer
aspen, while willow and paper birch are second
choice foods.
- Voles and shrews eat the seeds.
- Numerous birds and small mammals eat paper
birch buds, catkins and seeds.
- Young paper birch stands provide prime deer
and moose cover.
Birds:
- Numerous cavity-nesting birds nest in paper
birch, including woodpeckers, chickadees,
nuthatches, and swallows.
- A favorite feeding tree of yellow-bellied
sapsuckers, which peck holes in the bark to feed
on the sap. Hummingbirds and red squirrels also
feed at sapwells in paper birch created by
sapsuckers.
- Ruffed grouse eat the catkins and buds.
- Redpolls, siskins, and chickadees obtain a
considerable portion of their annual diet from
birch seeds
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Paper Birch is shallow-rooted: few roots go
deeper than 24" below the soil surface. Bark is
reddish-brown on saplings; on mature trees thin,
white, and smooth, separating into papery strips.
Native Americans gathered bark for canoe construction
during a winter thaw or just when the sap
started to flow in the spring. A tree of the desired size, with
bark up to nine layers thick, was felled and trimmed and the
bark was cut and stripped off in one piece. The wooden frame of
the canoe was usually made of northern white cedar. The birch bark, with the
brown, inner layer of the bark turned to the outside, formed the
skin. Seams were sewn with split roots of spruce or tamarack,
then waterproofed with spruce resin. Birch bark canoes made by
northern tribes were traded to tribes from more southern
regions, where white birch was scarce, and later to European
colonists. Our modern canvas and fiberglass canoes are patterned
after the Native American birch bark canoe.
Smaller pieces of birch bark were used in making dwellings
called wigwams. Wigwams were of two types. The dome-shaped
wigwam had a framework of bent saplings that was covered with
overlapping layers of birch bark.
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