Striping birch bark doesnt kill it. Im native American, and make birch bark canoes and baskets and if you strip it properly it doesnt hurt the tree at all, infact it makes the tree stronger. But, if you go tooooo deep, then it can damage it and if you go way to deep then it can kill it.
Show us the leaves. Move the camera up and show the living birch tree. That doesn’t kill the tree. The cracking brown part acts as a protective layer. As long as you don’t remove that, it will live. I can even see new bark growing back under it. If the bark is harvested correctly, new bark will grown back in a decade or so.
you cannot rely on leaves and grass in wet weather. taking artificial kindling to the woods can actually be even worse because it encourages littering (that may differ but people who leave rusty nails in trees will also leave all their unused candles and canisters on the ground). i agree that peeling bark off living trees just to light a fire is really unnecessary because dead trees can be used for that. the bark remains flammable for a year or two even if it lies on the ground. but for many other uses you need good bark from a living tree. in most cases the tree eventually heals itself and sometimes you can even make two canoes using bark from the same tree (must wait 30 years to make the second one). but if the initial cuts are too deep (like in this video) or the tree is unlucky, it can die. birches are far from extinction, at least where i live (central russia). all the folks in backcountry use them to heat their houses in winter but more trees appear every year. historically russians used birch bark for a lot of things including letters, footwear, roof insulation and various containers - jars, buckets, travellers' salt boxes, sheaths... and still birch is one of the most common tree species here.
Just in case you don't know one new layer of bark is growing underneath the outer bark every year. Obviously a little more knowledge needs to be taken in here.
I recall camp staff yelled at me and my mate as a first year scouts for removing bark from some young birch trees to make model Brich Bark Canoes. They made us cut down and stack the wood. I was a paid staffer years later and new Butch Trees had already shot up. But I agree with the video, use #2 Diesel Fuel to start camp fires. Isn’t that the point. 🤣
Striping birch bark doesnt kill it. Im native American, and make birch bark canoes and baskets and if you strip it properly it doesnt hurt the tree at all, infact it makes the tree stronger. But, if you go tooooo deep, then it can damage it and if you go way to deep then it can kill it.
Show us the leaves. Move the camera up and show the living birch tree. That doesn’t kill the tree. The cracking brown part acts as a protective layer. As long as you don’t remove that, it will live. I can even see new bark growing back under it. If the bark is harvested correctly, new bark will grown back in a decade or so.
you cannot rely on leaves and grass in wet weather. taking artificial kindling to the woods can actually be even worse because it encourages littering (that may differ but people who leave rusty nails in trees will also leave all their unused candles and canisters on the ground). i agree that peeling bark off living trees just to light a fire is really unnecessary because dead trees can be used for that. the bark remains flammable for a year or two even if it lies on the ground. but for many other uses you need good bark from a living tree.
in most cases the tree eventually heals itself and sometimes you can even make two canoes using bark from the same tree (must wait 30 years to make the second one). but if the initial cuts are too deep (like in this video) or the tree is unlucky, it can die.
birches are far from extinction, at least where i live (central russia). all the folks in backcountry use them to heat their houses in winter but more trees appear every year. historically russians used birch bark for a lot of things including letters, footwear, roof insulation and various containers - jars, buckets, travellers' salt boxes, sheaths... and still birch is one of the most common tree species here.
Just in case you don't know one new layer of bark is growing underneath the outer bark every year. Obviously a little more knowledge needs to be taken in here.
I recall camp staff yelled at me and my mate as a first year scouts for removing bark from some young birch trees to make model Brich Bark Canoes. They made us cut down and stack the wood.
I was a paid staffer years later and new Butch Trees had already shot up. But I agree with the video, use #2 Diesel Fuel to start camp fires. Isn’t that the point. 🤣