Treesearch

Of the forty or so species of trees that comprise this genera, seven are native to North America. Three are of silvicultural importance in North America: yellow birch, paper birch, and sweet birch (USDA Forest Service 1965). When ornamental, landscaping, and reclamation uses are considered, three additional species—gray birch, European white birch, and river birch—and numerous varieties would be included.

S. Bent & Brothers, Inc. is a small furniture company located in Gardner, Massachusetts, specializing in the manufacture of Early American wooden seat chairs. Because of our size and our specialization, we do not necessarily represent the industry in our ideas about and use of yellow birch as a primary raw material. Our company during the past 100 years has made furniture from mahogany, chestnut, oak, white pine, hard pine, rock maple, and yellow birch. Various reasons such as availability, price, workability, and consumer demand have dictated which species we have used at different points...

Young stands of either paper birch or yellow birch are relatively scarce in the northern hardwood region today, primarily because birch has not regenerated with the silvicultural practices used over the past 30 or 40 years. Where light cuttings and uneven-aged management have been used, the birches have gradually been eliminated in favor of more tolerant species. By now, I think most of us would agree that some form of even-aged management is required where we want to grow large proportions of the birches.

Almost any method of cutting will provide some natural regeneration of birch in the northern hardwood forests of New England. However, where high proportions of yellow and paper birch are to be naturally regenerated, cutting and cultural measures must be given special consideration. Generally some form of clearcutting—patches, strips, or blocks—and seedbed preparation are the prime requisites for successful stand establishment. These appear to be simple prescriptions to follow; but in many timber-management programs the clearcutting is not complete enough, and seedbed preparation...

In Canada yellow birch populates a geographic range that extends from the Manitoba-Ontario border through southern Ontario and Quebec and eastwards throughout the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland.

Yellow birch has been a difficult species to regenerate in the Lake States. This is partly because, although yellow birch is a member of the climax, it displays few of the attributes of a climax species (such as ability to grow in shade, and ability to seed on undisturbed forest floor). Though yellow birch functions as a pioneer species after stand disturbance, techniques ordinarily used to regenerate pioneer species are not usually successful. Results with group selection have been the most consistent, but this system is difficult to apply.

Both the quality of the landscape and timber production will receive attention during the sessions that follow, for the two are inseparably related throughout the northern hardwood regions of the United States and Canada. These forests that provide birch and other fine hardwood timber for consumer use also provide some of the finest opportunities for outdoor recreation of any area in the world.

The genus Betula is composed of about 40 species of trees and shrubs. This paper deals with two of the most important: paper birch and yellow birch—their geographic ranges, areas of importance, cover types in which they are found, cubic- and board-foot volumes, estimates of growth-allowable cut, removal, and future volume trends. Our data are drawn from numerous timber-resource reports. Most information presented here is based on surveys and compilations made in the 1960's; but where no later data were available, information collected during the 1950's was used. In Canada, where no...

Production of hardwood plywood in the United States has increased steadily from 1955 to 1967 - almost doubling during this period (table 1). The peak year for shipments of hardwood plywood was 1965, for all species (1,668,313,000 square feet surface measure) and also for birch ( 600,72 3,000 square feet surface measure). The U.S. Bureau of Census figures are not available yet for 1968; however, they should be as high as those for 1965.

A birch tree is made up of a variety of round pieces of wood that can be used to manufacture many different products. To convert the tree into its best end use, it is first necessary to classify the usable round pieces into major product classes. These product classes will vary from low-quality wood suitable only for pulpwood or charcoal to high-quality wood for making fancy veneer (fig. 1). After the major product classification is made, a grading system is used to determine the relative value of the log, bolt, or tree for that product.