In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, just after the snow melts but before flowers start to bud, Pat Bruderer, 67, searches for paper birch trees. When she finds bark with just the right color on the ...

Editor's Note: This column first appeared in the York Weekly in 2013. Paper birch (also called white birch) is an iconic tree of the north and probably our most easily recognized tree because of it… ...

Editor's Note: This column first appeared in the York Weekly in 2013. Paper birch (also called white birch) is an iconic tree of the north and probably our most easily recognized tree because of it… ...

Over a dozen feather-light boats, built in the traditional Wabanaki style and known for their nimbleness, gathered at the ...

A number of conifers are candidates for the Official Evergreen of Winter, but among the leaf-shedding shade trees there is just one superstar, the birch tree with its peeling snow-white bark. Birch… ...

River birch support a wide variety of wildlife as deer and other browsers feed on the foliage, songbirds feast on the small but plentiful seeds, and ruby-throated hummingbirds drink the sap. A unique ...

The bark was brought up outside the length of the canoe and large birch canoe stakes driven into the ground along each side the length of the canoe to begin to form its shape (see Fig. 1).

A fairly fast-growing tree, river birch can reach a height of 70 feet or more. Native throughout the eastern U.S., it is typically found on the banks of rivers and streams as well as in floodplains.

The benefits offered by birch bark extracts make it a project worth undertaking, Garhofer said. "It has certain characteristics that are not found in other products," he said.

When birch trees fall over, salamanders like to hide underneath because the bark creates a micro-climate for them, said Colleen Matula, a DNR forest ecologist based in Ashland.

It's the law. The adult bronze birch borer looks like a tiny, long football and is olive to brown with coppery metallic wings and body. It lays eggs under loose pieces of bark at the top of the tree.