Birch
Birch is a short-lived pioneer species which is both attractive and fast growing; an ideal nurse species in many mixed forest plantations.
It is tolerant of a wide range of soils and well suited to planting in small gardens and in urban areas. Birch is the fourth most common species in Britain occupying 6% of the total forest area. It has attractive timber which can be used for furniture, plywood, veneers, pulps and particle board.
Birch research in the UK is being co-ordinated by the birch group of the British & Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BIHIP). The group is building on initial work undertaken by Forest Research from the late 1980s which included selecting 75 plus trees, grafting and flowering trials, and the collection of indigenous populations.
The current aims of the BIHIP Birch group are:
- to establish a range of provenance trials to evaluate the level of local adaptation and to establish seed transfer guidance;
- to produce improved seed, using polyhouses, based on regional selections of clones.
Please visit the BIHIP pages for more information.
