DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Betula alleghaniensis | Yellow Birch 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
The range of yellow birch extends from southern Newfoundland, Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Anticosti Island, the Gaspe
peninsula, and Maine west to southern and southwestern Ontario and
Minnesota; south to northern New Jersey, northern Ohio, extreme northern
Indiana and Illinois; and south in the mountains to South Carolina,
extreme northeastern Georgia, and eastern Tennessee [76].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES16  Oak - gum - cypress
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch


STATES : 
     CT  GA  IN  IL  IA  KY  ME  MD  MA  MI
     MN  NH  NJ  NY  NC  OH  PA  RI  SC  TN
     VT  VA  WV  WI  NB  NF  NS  ON  PQ


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  ALPO  APIS  BISO  BLRI  CAMO
     CUGA  CUVA  DEWA  GRSM  INDU  ISRO
     JOFL  MACA  MORR  NERI  PIRO  SARA
     SHEN  SLBE


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce - fir forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     5  Balsam fir
    16  Aspen
    17  Pin cherry
    18  Paper birch
    19  Gray birch - red maple
    20  White pine - northern red oak - red maple
    21  Eastern white pine
    22  White pine - hemlock
    23  Eastern hemlock
    24  Hemlock - yellow birch
    25  Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch
    26  Sugar maple - basswood
    27  Sugar maple
    28  Black cherry - maple
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    34  Red spruce - Fraser fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white-cedar
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    50  Black locust
    57  Yellow-poplar
    58  Yellow-poplar - eastern hemlock
    59  Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
    60  Beech - sugar maple
   107  White spruce
   108  Red maple


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Yellow birch is usually found singly or in small groups [32], growing
with American beech (Fagus grandifolia), maples (Acer spp.),
particularly sugar maple (A. saccharum), ashes (Fraxinus spp.), aspens
(Populus spp.), other birches (Betula spp.), eastern white pine (Pinus
strobus), red spruce (Picea rubens), and balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
[25].  In the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest region, yellow birch
occurs in mixed forests with red pine (P. resinosa) and eastern white
pine, and with eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) [1].  Yellow birch is
a dominant, codominant, or important species in northern hardwoods-red
spruce forest, northern hardwoods, transition hardwoods-eastern white
pine, and in central hardwoods-eastern hemlock-eastern white pine [28].
Yellow birch is codominant with yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra) in
western Great Smoky Mountains National Park [19].  In the Catskill
Mountains of New York, yellow birch is dominant in some spruce-fir
stands and codominant in most others.  It occurs as nearly pure stands
on steep slopes at higher altitudes, or mixed with black cherry (Prunus
serotina), mountain maple (Acer spicatum), red maple (A. rubrum) and
paper birch (B. papyrifera) in open, scrubby stands on ridgetops [86].

Small trees and shrubs associated with yellow birch include sweet birch
(B. lenta), ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), American hornbeam
(Carpinus caroliniana), striped maple (A. pensylvanicum), mountain
maple, alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), beaked hazelnut
(Corylus cornuta), Atlantic leatherwood (Dirca palustris), witch-hazel
(Hamamelis virginiana), American fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis),
American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana), Canada elderberry (Sambucus
canadensis), Canada yew (Taxus canadensis), and mapleleaf viburnum
(Viburnum acerifolium) [32].

The largest concentrations of yellow birch are found in Quebec, Ontario, New
Brunswick, Maine, upper Michigan, and New York.  About 50 percent of the
growing stock volume of yellow birch is in Quebec [32].

Publications listing yellow birch as a dominant or codominant species in
vegetation classification schemes include:

The natural forests of Maryland: an explanation of the vegetation map of
  Maryland [15]
Field guide: Habitat classification system for Upper Peninsula of
  Michigan and northeast Wisconsin [24]
White Mountain landscapes [36]
A forest classification for the Maritime Provinces [79]
A classification of the deciduous forest of eastern North America [88]
Vegetation-environment relations in virgin, middle elevation forests
  in the Adirondack Mountains, New York [101]
Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains [123]
Classification of forest ecosystems in Michigan [126]

Related categories for Species: Betula alleghaniensis | Yellow Birch