Nature's Notebook - Jan. 30, 2012

Our warm late fall weather continues. Before Thanksgiving, with nearly all the leaves off our deciduous trees, the most outstanding remaining splash of color belonged to the golden-yellow leaves on our familiar "weeping willows," aka white willow trees . These large trees with their drooping foliage are not native to North America, but they are certainly among our best known "naturalized citizens." They generally grow in moist soil near watercourses.

The Sharon-Millerton Road was a good place to enjoy this eye-catching display; around each turn, it seemed, there was a fresh burst of color set against the more quiet grays and dark greens of the hillsides.

Now, with even the last of the hardy willows fading in color, the shiny white bark of what is among our most famous native trees, the paper birch , takes center stage. In contrast to the weeping willow, this is a small tree and sheds its leaves months earlier. But now its wonderful bark and shapely profile show up beautifully in autumn’s last light.

The paper birch has a rich history as a resource to humans, particularly for the Native American tribes that once made up the majority of our region’s inhabitants. The tree’s thin but surprisingly sturdy bark, which naturally peels off in lateral strips, had a great variety of uses. Because it is waterproof, the bark was used in the building of teepees and wigwams, for clothing, and to make the shells of canoes, which is why this species is sometimes referred to as canoe birch. Some Indian cultures still use strips of birch bark for basketweaving.

Other parts of the tree also were used: The pulp was sometimes used as food, and the sap was boiled down much like maple sugar to produce a condiment. Today, the paper birch still has good commercial value and is an important source of food for birds and other wildlife.

In the wild, the paper birch is an early successional plant, growing in open areas after a burn or other natural event. It is both shade intolerant and relatively short lived, and even absent competition, a paper birch of more than 150 years is considered old.

It is possible in our area to mistake the introduced European white birch for the native species at a distance. Up close, however, the former lacks the exfoliating (peeling) bark.

Fred Baumgarten is a naturalist and writer. He can be reached at fredb58@sbcglobal.net. His blog is at thatbirdblog.blogspot.com.