Birches all have horizontal marks on their tight-fitting bark. These, called lenticels, allow air to reach the inner growing layer. As birches grow, their bark gets tighter, stretches and then peals off. Yellow birch bark peels in strips. The bark of white birch peels off in sheets.
Yellow birch is found all over upstate New York.
It prefers rich, moist sites and is frequently found with hemlock, sugar maple and beech. It is one of our most important and largest timber trees, producing heavy, strong, close-grained wood valuable for furniture, woodenware, flooring, interior finish, airplanes and veneer. Deer, red squirrels, ruffed grouse, rabbits and small birds find its seed, buds or twigs valuable winter food. Now they must grow here and there in spots not dominated by the more successful seed-producing plants, like trees, wildflowers and grasses. Here on the rocky bank above the trail are a number of primitive plants, which thrive in the cool, shady, moist, rocky environment.