Today I visited my site in Centennial Woods and looked around for some of the species listed. The species I found was paper birch.
I know this tree is a paper birch and not one of its winter lookalikes because the bark peeled off very easily and it was very clearly white. That, and the fact that the bark did not smell like wintergreen, ruled out the yellow birch. I looked around and saw many other trees that looked exactly like the one I chose. They were all growing along the edge of the trail in Centennial Woods. This is another factor that led me to believe that this tree was a paper birch and not any of its winter lookalikes. The paper birch likes to grow along the edge of trails so it can access sunlight and nutrients.
I uploaded a photo of my species to iNaturalist and almost immediately someone confirmed my identification.
