VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Betula papyrifera | Paper Birch 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Paper birch wood is used commercially for veneer, plywood, and pulpwood.
It is easily worked and takes finishes and stains readily.  Furniture,
cabinets, and numerous specialty items are made from paper birch lumber.
Tree chips are used for pulp and paper manufacture, reconstituted uses,
and fuel.  It is commonly used as fireplace and wood stove fuel [57,66].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Paper birch is an important moose browse throughout most of its range.
Its nutritional quality is poor in the winter, but it is important to
wintering moose because of its sheer abundance in young stands [57].
Peek [49] listed paper birch as one of the five most important browse
species eaten by moose in the East.  In some areas, paper birch leaves
are important in moose summer diets [36].  Although considered a
"secondary-choice food", paper birch is an important dietary component
of white-tailed deer [33].  In Minnesota, white-tailed deer eat
considerable amounts of paper birch leaves in the fall [32].

Snowshoe hares browse paper birch seedlings and saplings and porcupines
feed on the inner bark of trees [57].  In Newfoundland, paper birch was
a preferred hare browse [33].  Paper birch is also eaten by beaver [24].

Numerous birds and small mammals eat paper birch buds, catkins and
seeds.  Redpolls, siskins, and chickadees obtain a considerable portion
of their annual diet from birch seeds [51,57].  Voles and shrews also
eat the seeds [51].  Ruffed grouse eat paper birch catkins and buds
[57].

Paper birch is a favorite feeding tree of yellow-bellied sapsuckers,
which peck holes in the bark to feed on the sap [33].  Hummingbirds and
red squirrels also feed at sapwells in paper birch created by sapsuckers
[44].


PALATABILITY : 
Paper birch is a palatable moose browse.  In Alaska moose prefer it over
aspen, balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), and alder (Alnus spp.) but
prefer it less than willow (Salix spp.), which is the most palatable
moose browe [57].  Shaw [59] reported that white-tailed deer in the
Northeast exhibit a clear preference for birches.  Beaver generally
prefer aspen, while willow and paper birch are second choice foods [77].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Paper birch is a poor-quality winter moose browse.  At this time of
year, twigs provide adequate amounts of protein (about 7 to 8.5%
[14,48]) but are not easily digested because of high levels of lignin
[36,48].  Moose may die in the winter if restricted entirely to a diet
of paper birch [36].

Paper birch leaves sampled in July contained 16.9 percent protein [48].


COVER VALUE : 
Young paper birch stands provide prime deer and moose cover [57].
Numerous cavity-nesting birds nest in paper birch, including
woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and swallows [44,56].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Paper birch is useful for long-term revegetation and soil stabilization
of severely disturbed sites.  It is used to reclaim coal, lignite, rock
phosphate, slate, gold, oil-shale, bauxite, and other mine spoils
[52,70].  Best results are obtained by planting 2-year-old or older
bare-root or containerized stock [52].  It is occasionally transplanted
as wildlings.  Methods for collecting, extracting, cleaning, storing,
and sowing paper birch seed to produce nursery grown seedlings are
available [11,26,70].  Paper birch may also be propagated by grafting,
air layering, rooting of cuttings, or tissue-culture techniques [57].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Paper birch's graceful form and attractive bark make it a popular
landscape plant [57].  The sap is made into syrup, wine, beer, and
medicinal tonics.  Currently only a few small sugaring operations in
Alaska utilize paper birch [57].

Native Americans made paper birch bark into baskets, storage containers,
mats, baby carriers, moose and bird calls, torches, household utensils,
and canoes [30].  The strong and flexible wood was made into spears,
bows, arrows, snowshoes, sleds, and other items [30].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Silviculture:  Paper birch is shade-intolerant and can regenerate under
even-aged silviculture.  Clearcutting is the most common silvicultural
system used for paper birch, but shelterwood, strip cuts, and small
patch cuts are used to provide partial shade where summer precipitation
is limiting [58].  For good seedling establishment at least 50 percent
of the cut area should be scarified [58].

Wildlife damage:  Severe deer or moose browsing in clearcuts can prevent
or delay paper birch regeneration [6,33].  Following timber harvest in
Newfoundland, paper birch regeneration averaged 13 inches (33 cm) tall
where moose densities were high but averaged nearly 50 inches (127 cm)
elsewhere [6].  Snowshoe hare and other small mammals often clip or gnaw
the bark of planted seedlings [57].

Chemical control:  Paper birch is susceptible to 2,4-D, 2,4,5,-T,
dichlorprop, or glyphosate applied as a foliar spray [10,24].
Glyphosate, hexazinone, or triclopyr applied by hypohatchet also kill
paper birch [24].

Leaf litter/conifer germination:  Paper birch leaf litter inhibits jack
pine, red pine (Pinus resinosa), and eastern white pine (P. strobus)
seed germination [51].

Insects:  The bronze birch borer is the most serious insect pest of
paper birch.  It attacks and can kill injured, overmature, or decadent
trees [12].  There are numerous defoliators of paper birch, but they
seldom cause mortality of healthy trees [57].

Diseases:  Bacteria or decay fungi enter paper birch boles through
wounds and branch stubs, and roots which come in contact with the roots
of other trees infected with rootd- rotting fungi [57,60].  Trees in
Alaska are very susceptible to decay, but elsewhere tend to contain
little defect [76].  Most diseases can be identified by observing
external signs [60].

Related categories for Species: Betula papyrifera | Paper Birch