Birch trees are beautiful. Our area hosts 4 different types of birch, all easily identified by their bark that peels: whitish bark that separates into layers. Like willows they easily create hybrids with other birch species and, like willows, they attract Mourning Cloak butterflies and a host of other insects.  For millennia used by Native Americans for equipment (canoes) “skin,” dyes, ties, tinder … a myriad of uses.  Gardens include (by Kiosk 4) the Western Paper Birch, the Water Birch, the River Birch, and the Bog Birch.  Pilchuck Learning Center’s sponsored Western Washington State University SAM Project extinction possibility is slight, that is <.0001 and found in other areas of North America.

http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Betula
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-04.pdf 
https://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Betula%20pumila
https://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Betula%20papyrifera
https://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Betula%20occidentalis
https://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Betula%20glandulosa
https://www.instagram.com/p/C51H1MDCXVc/

The use of birch included:

toboggans
sewing
the above plus far more

Comments, content, questions appreciated; emailbb@plc215.org

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