At rock point the most plentiful tree species is the Northern White Cedar. However, on the top of the bluff an interesting assortment of trees can be found including: red maples, oaks, paper birches, American beech, etc. The tree that I chose to investigate is the paper birch. The paper birch is one of my favorite trees. The bark is so unique and pretty, i love the contrast that it adds to the surrounding forest.
My tree has a large split running down the side of it that almost looks like it may have been struck by lighting. It is incredibly tall maybe around 30-40ft tall. The trunk is skinnier then most paper birch trees found in the mountain. This is probably because by the water it is warmer so there is less competition holding them back from growing tall, then paper birches found at high elevations with a shorter growing season.
Paper birch can sometimes be confused with gray birch, river birch, or yellow birch. Paper birch is distint from these three other options because their bark is a lot more white then the gray or silver birch. The bark also peels off in bigger sections, more paper-like, then the other birches.
