DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Betula papyrifera | Paper Birch 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Paper birch has a transcontinental distribution across northern North
America.  It grows from Newfoundland and Labrador west along the
northern limit of tree growth across Canada to northwestern Alaska,
south to Washington, east and north in the mountains to western Montana
and southwestern Alberta, east across the Prairie Provinces to Manitoba,
and south and east through the Lake States to New England.  Scattered
outlying populations occur in the Great Plains of Montana and North
Dakota, the Black Hills, the Appalachian Mountains from central New York
to western North Carolina, and the Front Range of Colorado [57].  Paper
birch is cultivated in Hawaii [79].

Detailed descriptions of the ranges of the six varieties are available
[38,66].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES18  Maple - beech - birch
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES38  Plains grasslands


STATES : 
     AK  CO  CT  HI  ID  IL  IN  IA  ME  MA
     MI  MN  MT  NE  NH  NJ  NY  NC  ND  OH
     OR  PA  RI  SD  VT  VA  WA  WV  WI  WY
     AB  BC  LB  MB  NB  NF  NT  NS  ON  PE
     PQ  SK  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  ALPO  APIS  CACO  CODA  DEWA
     DENA  EFMO  GLAC  GRSM  INDU  ISRO
     LACL  MORU  NOCA  PIRO  SARA  SHEN
     WRST  YUCH


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    2  Cascade Mountains
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K081  Oak savanna
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K102  Beech - maple forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    14  Northern pin oak
    15  Red pine
    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
    27  Sugar maple
    30  Red spruce - yellow birch
    31  Red spruce - sugar maple - beech
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    37  Northern white cedar
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    55  Northern red oak
    60  Beech - sugar maple
   107  White spruce
   108  Red maple
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   203  Balsam poplar
   204  Black spruce
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   213  Grand fir
   217  Aspen
   222  Black cottonwood - willow
   224  Western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   251  White spruce - aspen
   252  Paper birch
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
In boreal spruce ecosystems, paper birch forms nearly pure, pioneer
communities on disturbed sites.  It is rare in late successional or
climax forests and generally restricted to openings.  It is a principal
component of boreal mixedwoods in Canada because its pioneering habit is
favored by the relatively frequent 50- to 125-year fire return interval
[17].  Codominants in mixedwoods include trembling aspen (Populus
tremuloides), black spruce (Picea mariana), white spruce (P.  glauca),
jack pine (Pinus banksiana), and balsam fir (Abies balsamifera).  In the
Northern Great Plains, paper birch forms climax woodland communities on
moist, north- or east-facing slopes [23,28].

Published classifications listing paper birch as a dominant in community
types (cts), habitat types (hts), plant associations (pas), or ecosystem
associations (eas) are presented below:

      Area                 Classification            Authority

interior AK               postfire cts           Foote 1983
AK                        general veg. cts       Viereck & Dyrness 1980
AK: Kenai Peninsula       forest veg. cts        Reynolds 1990
MN: Boundary Waters       general veg. cts       Ohmann & Ream 1971
 Canoe Area         
e MT, ne WY, w ND,        forest & woodland hts  Hansen & others 1984
 w SD: Missouri Plateau 
sw ND                     woodland hts           Girard & others 1989

c NF                      forest veg. cts        Damman 1964
PQ: Gaspe Peninsula       forest veg. cts        Zolaseski 1988
    St. Lawrence Valley   general veg. pas       Dansereau 1959
BC: Prince Rupert Forest  general veg. eas       Haeussler & others 1984
 Region, Interior Cedar-
 Hemlock Zone
w-c Alberta               forest eas             Corns & Annas 1986

Related categories for Species: Betula papyrifera | Paper Birch