White Birch Traditional Cache

This White Birch reminded me of my childhood in Sweden. In the North of the country, white birches are the only deciduous trees. The European Betula Alba is a different species apparently.

White Birch

Betula papyrifera (paper birch, also known as white birch and canoe birch) is a short lived species of birch native to northern North America. Paper birch is named due to the thin white bark which often peels in paper like layers from the trunk. Paper birch is often one of the first species to colonize a burned area within the norther latitudes and an important species for moose browse. The wood is often used for pulpwood and firewood.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree typically reaching 20 metres (66 ft) tall, and exceptionally to 130 feet (40 m) with a trunk up to 30 inches (0.76 m) diameter. Within forests it often grows with a single trunk but when grown as a landscape tree it may develop multiple trunks or branch close to the ground.

Paper birch is a typically short lived species. It handles heat and humidity poorly and may only live 30 years in zones six and up,^[ while trees in colder-climate regions can grow over 100 years. B. papyrifera will grow on many soil types, from steep rocky outcrops to flat muskegs of the boreal forest. Best growth occurs on deeper, well drained to dry soils depending on the location.

Betula papyrifera has a wide range. It is found in interior (var. humilus) and south-central (var. kenaica) Alaska and in all provinces and territories of Canada, except Nunavut, as well as the northern continental United States, south to Pennslvania and Washington, with small isolated populations further south in mountains to North Carolina, New Mexico, and Colorado. The most southerly stand in the Western United States is located in Long Canyon in the City od Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks.. This is an isolated Pleistocene relict that most likely reflects the southern reach of boreal vegetation into the area during the last Ice Age.

Betula papyrifera is a pioneer species meaning it is often one of the first trees to grow in an area after other trees are removed by some sort of disturbance. Typical disturbances colonized by paper birch are wildfire, avalanche, or windthrow areas where the wind has blown down all trees. When it grows in these pioneer, or early successional, woodlands it often forms stands of trees where it is the only species.

Paper birch is considered well adapted to fires it recovers quickly by means of reseeding the area or regrowth from the burned tree. The lightweight seeds are easily carried by the wind to burned areas where they quickly germinate and grow into new trees. Paper birch is adapted to ecosystems where fires occur every 50–150 years.  For example, it is frequently an early invader after fire in black spruce boreal forests. As it is a pioneer species, finding paper birch within mature or climax forests is rare as it will be overcome by the more shade tolerant trees as secondary succession progresses.

As an example, in Alaskan boreal forests, a paper birch stand 20 years after a fire may have 3000-6000 trees per acre, after 60–90 years the number of trees will decrease to 500-800 per acre as spruce replaces the birch. After approximately 75 years the birch will start dying and by 125 years most paper birch will have disappeared unless another fire burns the area.

Black birch trees themselves have varied reactions to A group, or stand, of paper birch is not particularly flammable, the canopy often has a high moisture content and the under story is often lush green. As such, conifer crown fires often stop once they reach a stand of paper birch or become slower moving ground fires. Since these stands are fire resistant they may become seed trees to reseed the area around them which was burned. However, in dry periods paper birch is flammable and will burn rapidly. As the bark is flammable it will often burn and may girdle the tree.

Birch bark is a winter staple food for moose. The nutritional quality is poor due to the large quantities of lignin, which make digestion difficult, but is important to wintering moose because of its sheer abundance. Moose prefer paper birch over aspen, alder, and balsam poplar but they prefer willow (Salix spp.) over birch and the other species listed. Although moose consume large amounts of paper birch in the winter, if they were to only eat paper birch they may die.

Although white-tailed deer consider birch 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 hares browse paper birch seedlings. Porcupines feed on the inner bark of the tree and beavers will also feed on the tree. The seeds of paper birch are an important part of the diet of many birds and small mammals including chickadees, redpolls, voles, and ruffed grouse. Yellow bellied sapsuckers drill holes in the bark of paper birch to get at the sap, this is one of their favorite trees for feeding on.

Betula papyrifera has a soft, yet moderately heavy, white wood. It makes excellent high-yielding firewood if seasoned properly. The dried wood has a density of 37.4 lb/ft³ and an energy density 20,300,000 btu/cord. While paper birch does not have a very high overall economic value, it is used in furniture, flooring, popsicle sticks pulpwood (for paper), plywood, and oriented strand board. The wood can also be made into spears, bows, arrows, snowshoes, sleds and other items. When used as pulp for paper, the stems and other non trunk wood are lower in quantity and quality of fibers and consequently the fibers have less mechanical strength, nonetheless, this wood is still suitable for use in paper.

The sap is boiled down to produce birch syrup. The raw sap contains .9% carbohydrates^] as compared to 2-3% within sugar maple. The sap flows later in the season than maples. Currently, only a few small scale operations in Alaska currently produce birch syrup from this species.

Its bark is an excellent fire starter; it ignites at high temperatures even when wet. The bark has an energy density of 5740 cal/g and 3209 cal/cm³, the highest per unit weight of 24 species tested.

Panels of bark can be fitted or sewn together to make cartons and boxes (a birchbark box is called a wiigwaasi-makak in the Anishinaabe language). The bark is also used to create a durable waterproof layer in the construction of sod-roofed houses. Many indigenous groups (i.e. Wabanaki peoples) use birch-bark for making various items such as canoes, containers and wigwams.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "micro" pill bottle. Push down hard to open and close! The rolled log needs the rubber band to hold it tight in the plastic bag. Please BYOP, no tweezers and put it all back as you found it. It's near, but not on the tree itself.