Birch Trees

Our sunny winter days hint of spring but the trees beyond the parking lot are still leafless. Rising high above surrounding buildings, they look like thin black pencil streaks; their hard edged silhouettes contrasting sharply against the pale blue winter sky.

Appraising the unbroken line of the tree trunks, I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen a birch tree in a long, long time. Where had all the white birches gone?

As a child, they were as familiar to me as oak and black walnut trees. In those far away days, many groupings of two and three birches graced the lawns of neighbors and dotted the countryside. Seeing bits of white bark, loosened from the trunk and hanging in tatters, was as familiar a sight to me as seeing robins hopping across lawns, hunting worms a few feet from passersby.

I grew up knowing Indians used birch bark to make canoes, but just how a canoe was made was a mystery. I never asked and I am not certain anyone would have been able to tell me if I had asked. Now the 'how' no longer remains a mystery. The following fabulous YouTube tells and shows all!

Building a Birch Bark Canoe