My local woods is littered with fallen silver birch - was wondering why this is? Is it because they are weaker than say, oak, beech, ash etc or could it be due to disease??
Fallen Silver Birch
- Thread starter bushcraftbob
- Start date
rancid badger
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Don't worry, we are exactly the same here, There are literally dozens of fallen birch among the 980 hectares of Chopwell Wood.
It's a bit strange really, you get perfectly healthy specimens with a few dead ones lying around among them. It's always been the same, wherever I have seen birch growing in decent numbers, there are always dead ones.
This has several benefits to the camper/canoeist/bushcrafter of course, as you always get polypore fungus on both standing and fallen, dead birch as well as plenty of easily available bark for fires etc.
The benefits to wildlife are huge; woodpeckers can easily dig out insects as well as nest holes in rotten birch and owls and bats often take over these woodpecker holes later on.
regards
R.B.
It's a bit strange really, you get perfectly healthy specimens with a few dead ones lying around among them. It's always been the same, wherever I have seen birch growing in decent numbers, there are always dead ones.
This has several benefits to the camper/canoeist/bushcrafter of course, as you always get polypore fungus on both standing and fallen, dead birch as well as plenty of easily available bark for fires etc.
The benefits to wildlife are huge; woodpeckers can easily dig out insects as well as nest holes in rotten birch and owls and bats often take over these woodpecker holes later on.
regards
R.B.
From memory, I think that there is a sucession in woodland and the silver birch is one of the colonisers which will grow fast but are fairly short lived.
It seems to be common to see birch ~8"- 10" diameter (err that's 20-25cm) fallen where oak and other longer-lived trees are settling in. Sometimes there seem to be several generations of birch where there are apparently thriving ones amongst the fallen ones as RB described.
Cheers,
Steve
It seems to be common to see birch ~8"- 10" diameter (err that's 20-25cm) fallen where oak and other longer-lived trees are settling in. Sometimes there seem to be several generations of birch where there are apparently thriving ones amongst the fallen ones as RB described.
Cheers,
Steve
