It breaks my heart to see so many videos promoting drilling into trunks of birch trees to insert a tap or tube to collect the rising sap.
This makes the tree open to infection however the bore hole is later sealed. This method has been proven to kill 80% of trees within 12 years when the main stem is tapped.
Pruning a twig imitates animal browsing which the tree is well adapted to deal with. Experiments we have done have proven that tapping the tip of a twig half as thick as your finger will generate the SAME yield over the same period as making a hole in the main trunk bore methods, but the tree can more easily heal itself causing no long term harm.
Read more about this method of collecting birch sap at www.polarisbushcraft.co.uk/post/how-to-tap-birch-trees-sustainably
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