# Harvesting Birch tree bark?



## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

Have any of you harvested birch tree bark? If so, how have you done it? How thick do you cut it?

Do you do anything special to preserve it?


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## WanderingOak (Jul 12, 2004)

PrincessFerf said:


> Have any of you harvested birch tree bark? If so, how have you done it? How thick do you cut it?
> 
> Do you do anything special to preserve it?


What are you going to be doing with it? Are you making a canoe, or making beer?


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Do you have access to paper birch trees that it's okay to strip the bark from? (On your own land, or with permission?) If so, take a large sharp knife out and do some experimenting. Cut two rings around a tree -- a mature tree, as the young ones don't peel the same way -- about a foot to eighteen inches apart. Then cut a vertical line between the two rings, and peel the slab of bark off, prying with your knife if you have to (and at this time of year you'll probably have to -- it comes off easier in the spring when the sap is rising). What you'll find is that birch bark is something like a banana peel, although stiff, more like plywood veneer. But it peels off like the hide off an animal, or the peel off an orange or banana. There isn't much you can do to adjust the thickness. And it doesn't need preservatives. It pretty much won't rot, at least not for many years. If you lay a birch log down and leave it for a couple of years, the wood will rot out of the inside of the bark (fairly quickly), leaving you with a bark tube. Might have to do some cleaning to get all the wood out, but it will be really punky, while the bark will be basically intact. 

You have to realize that 'ringing' a tree like this will kill it, by the way, so don't do it to any trees you want to save.

What do you plan to use the bark for?

Kathleen


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## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

I attended a discussion last week where a woman was discussing how Native Americans made baskets for food storage out of birch bark. She had photos of people doing it in more modern times. She said that it didn't kill the tree. So I was very curious about how this could be used today.

Mind you, I don't have intentions on using it to store food at home, but I think this would be a useful skill to learn. Plus, the baskets were lovely.

We have several birch trees on our property, so if I did this, I don't need to ask permission.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

White Birch, especially, sports multiple layers of outer bark before the green, living inner portion is reached.
As was stated above, the bark can be removed much as the skinning of a large hide. A little nick here, a little slice there, while maintaining a steady pressure as you gently pull the material away from the tree.
If caution is applied, there is no need to kill the tree.

I grew up in this area, west central Illinois, and read in my youth of the use of birch by the northern native tribes. It wasn't until I was almost 19 that I made my first trip north to central Michigan, where I met Wendy....
Upon finding that area well populated with white birch, one of the first projects I undertook was the careful stripping of enough of the bark (it was a large church camp facility, so permission was not an issue) to make myself a nice little trash can for my room overlooking a northern exposure toward a series of waterfalls between several spring fed ponds. I was in Paradise.

Being a lad studious of the native American ways from my early youth, I had brought my artificial sinew (a nylon product used extensively in modern native crafts) spool and set to work with my pocketknife making the holes and sewing up my cylindrical trash can with a round, flat bottom.
Years later, I remember seeing the trees that had provided me with the bark, a little discoloration where I removed the material, but none the worse for wear.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Princess, if you want to make small items without killing the trees, just make sure you leave an uncut strip of bark at least a couple of inches wide. In other words, don't girdle the trees. They'll recover eventually. You could probably take more than one piece of bark from large trees; just make sure the uncut strips are in a straight vertical line -- don't stagger them around the tree. 

Kathleen


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

Back when I was building twig furniture, I did some work with birch bark veneer. I tried to harvest primarily from downed trees. The wood will rot before the bark does.


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## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

That's the beauty of birch bark. The center of the log will rot away long before the bark ever does.

I have no intention of damaging our trees to a point they would suffer. But, would like to explore using some of the bark for some small projects. The key seems to be the depth of the bark taken. I'll definitely be doing more reading about this and most likely not take any until spring. 

Beyond our property, there are LOTS of birch trees in the woods, and I'm sure my neighbors wouldn't have a problem with me harvesting some bark here and there.


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