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The birch cousins of the north woods

A white birch tree with a birchbark basket of flowers nestled in it. (Karen Wils photo)

ESCANABA — Two country cousins stand by the river.

They are tall, strong and handsome and have called Upper Michigan home for many years.

The autumn sunrise paints their leaves warm yellow, amber and bronze.

Chickadees and nuthatches chirp and roam the curly and smooth bark and rest in the branches.

One of the cousins is bold and outgoing. Like a movie star, he likes to be in pictures. The older taller cousin is not so flashy but a pillar of the woodland community.

The golden curly bark of the yellow birch tree. (Karen Wils photo)

The white birch is the famous one in this forest family. Many books, brochures, maps and magazines about the north woods feature a lovely stand of white birch on the cover. Nearly everyone can identify the white birch tree. Most folks don’t even know that the yellow birch exists.

Snow falling on white birch trees is the essence of wilderness. Even the famous Robert Frost wrote a poem about the icy winter on the bending white birch.

White birch is famous because native peoples years ago used the bark for so many things like birchbark canoes, birchbark baskets and birchbark wigwam shelters.

In modern times, birch logs were the preferred firewood to be used for fireplaces. Not because of the heat it generated but because the white logs looked so pretty in the wood piles.

Every Yooper knows even today about the wonderful, combustible quick flames that the white birchbark can make when starting a campfire or wood stove. White birch firewood is good fuel, but it requires immediate splitting and piling because it will rot quickly in its white bark wrapper.

Karen Rose Wils

But those who heat with wood favor the other cousin on cold winter nights. Yellow birch is a heavier wood that throws much more heat when burned. Yellow birch looks a lot like his white cousin but the bark is darker, almost a golden-grey color.

Yellow birch tree twigs are aromatic with a wintergreen odor. The yellow birch tree is one of the largest deciduous trees native to Michigan and can grow to 100 feet high. They are known to be 300 years old!

They are U.P. hardy trees and have been prized for furniture and flooring.

The white birch, on the other hand, is a medium-sized tree with shallow roots and is prone to diseases.

Both beautiful cousin trees are important and have their niche in Upper Michigan. In my brother’s front yard, he has a thriving yellow birch tree that he transplanted from camp. The sapling was uprooted when the huge yellow birch with center-rot came down for firewood. In his extended backyard, my brother has a pretty white birch tree that just happened to grow there.

These kissing cousins are ready for October and amber-colored leaves.

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