BIRCH - 5 Things you Didn't Know About this Amazing Tree

Here's a birch-related bushcraft trick from Siberia - you can extract tar from birch bark (the same way you extract it from any other bark via pyrolisys) and use it a natural mosquito repellant. Mix it up with some cheap skin moisturizing cream and it works like a charm. Gives some tan though so beware. Siberian natives use it all the time

in Latvia we do this yearly thing with birch trees, where after winter we drill a hole inin tree put a wooden pipe in it and collect the birch tree water, super tasty and healty

Neat video! Didn't see it mentioned but if you peel birch bark, do not go all around the tree as that can girdle it. It pulls off its vascular tissue so it wont be able to move its sugars from the leaves to the roots! (I am one of those people who teach trees!)

I planted a reject paper birch baby from a nursery about 10 years ago and now she’s over 20 feet tall. Birch is the classiest tree in the forest…any forest.

One of the most important survival tips is the use of birch logs to make outdoor fires when it's raining and no other wood will burn. Even dead birch that has been lying on the ground and and partially rotted will burn in wet conditions. Very important to know if fire is needed for survival.

One should leave the bark on the Birch trees. Removing it removes the natural protection from insects. Please pick your birch bark from dead fallen trees and limbs.

You can make syrup from Birch sap. It's similar to maple syrup. You can also drink that sap if you're in need of clean water. The forest will save you.

I am a tree trimmer in Minnesota and almost every other tree trimmer and or non tree trimmer I meet doesn't know a tree from a bush from a flower from their elbow and it bothers me as well I wish there were more videos like this explaining things about tree biology!

As a child growing up in N.C. I knew a lot of old people who had never owned a toothbrush in their lives. They had always used a birch twig. Had better teeth than the ones that used a toothbrush

I grew up in rural Alabama learning carpentry and cabinetry from my grandfather and uncles. We have Birch trees here too. Birch is one of the best woods to use for making cabinets and if you boil the bark it makes a good yellow dye for fabrics

Hey, you did not mention that the Birch Tree grows Chaga; a fungus that grows on a live birch tree and is one of the best medicinal fungus in the forest. Also, the Horse Huff mushroom your wife pulled off the birch is great for packing a wounds (antiseptic) if you get injured in the forest and it makes a great tea to drink for your health. Also, there is another mushroom that grows on dead birch and it is called Birch Bracket, it pops out from beneath the bark and looks like a white bubble, later it blooms into a white flat shape mushroom with is also great as a medicinal/tea for your health.

Every 9 year old on this video: “Aren’t those the Minecraft trees?”

I made many baskets from Paper birch,.Fall and early spring leaves are tasty. I tapped black birch for birch beer, used the white paper for writing, and fresh inside bark for tooling pictures like on leather. Most interesting was when making minature canoes. syrup can be made tapping white birch but it takes twice as much and as long to make it like maple syrup. My grandpa built a log cabin with hand peeled birch logs back in 1928 carried out of the forest by mules across the froen lake,and I spent the best 60 summers of my life there.

Using birch bark for starting fires is one of the first things I learned about trees when I was a boy! Rob, I absolutely love this format. Keep going!

Xylitol is a carbohydrate found in the birch tree and several kinds of fruit. It has a chemical structure that looks like a cross between a sugar and an alcohol, but it is neither. ( copied ). The tree is also “ tapped “ for it’s watery sap in Appalachia as a drink but not like tapping maple trees for our classic maple syrup. Enjoyed the family fun and learning about the birch tree. We have a Paper Birch in our backyard and I decoupage boxes with it as well using it for other decorative uses. Just subscribed! ☺️

The cambium layer of bark is edible (raw, or cooked,) and can be dried & ground into a very nutritious flour. The sap can be consumed, or reduced over heat into a syrup. The Adirondack (“Tree Eaters”) Native American tribe lived largely off of consuming various parts of trees, like birches, beeches, and conifers. So, if your plane goes down in a remote part of mountain country, you don’t need to draw straws…

the best way to teach somebody the different types of trees as not only by showing them the bark of the tree how tall the trees can get but also and most importantly the shape of the leaves and the color of the leaves front and back pointing out any specific and identifying marks along the outer edges of the leaves. That's really the best way to teach people.

This video hit home for me as a Norwegian. With the Birch facts, the snow and snowballs, making fires. Reminded me of my childhood. :)

i made my bass guitar pick out of birch and i love it. i've never had a birch pick break and it sounds great in the mix. also who doesn't love chaga tea? birch is amazing

I just wanted to add something, earlier they would strip bark from the stems by making a vertical incision of perhaps 30cm and loosen one end then rip it off, these sheets could be used under grassy roofs (torvtak) - baskets and bowls could be made from it. Firewood from birch burns good but has less calories than hardwood, if some bark is taken from the wood before drying it, you have a storage of fantastic kindling. The swede did not mention the mountain birch, small and crooked, the gnarled and dense wood has been much used for knifehandles and such