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After eliminating Elms and several other species, I finally decided to google "Florida Birch trees" and tons of things came up. I switched over to google images and low and behold, there was this tree that we had been seeing. It turns out that it is "River Birch" and the park we were working at is at the very tip of its southern most natural range.
Trunk bark on birches seems to be often influenced by environmental conditions of where it is growing, among other things like disease and genetics. I've seen smaller birch trees with the same bark and birch trees 3-4 times that size with really smooth blemish free bark crafters and canoe builders would love.
Removal of birch bark, when done correctly, does not kill or greatly harm a tree. The following things should be taken into account when harvesting birch bark. Bark does not have to be harvested from live trees. Because of the remarkable preservative properties of birch bark, it can be harvested from dead or fallen trees.
Yeah, we have river birch here along creeks in the mountains, but not the birch trees you are wanting. Your best bet is to find a specimen planting in a yard or as landscaping in a shopping center or park. I recently moved here from Maryland and I really miss those Appalachian hardwoods!
The only place I had seen recognizable Birch trees was when someone planted one in their yard in the early 1960's. Gone now. Even when there is a lot of water available you can see not a lot of trees. Most of the southern California deserts don't even have the Joshua Trees in the picture. This is a place called crystal lake.
Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) is usually VERY white, sometimes almost flourescent in low light. Very peely and, well, papery. Gray birch (Betula populifolia) can be white-ish, but is very dirty looking with smaller, more clustered lenticels and tight, non-peely bark. Black birch (Betula lenta) is black to charcoal colored.
Birch Trees grew more densely in any given area but are often not that big. Trees like American Beech are probably the direct competitor for woodworkers compared to Ash. Beech wood is just less common on the market because of how slow it grows and the terrain it grows.
Birch is a harder wood than I thought and it took a good bit of time to get the bowl shape even started. I decided I would cheat a bit and save some time so I got a 1 1/2 inches paddle bit and drilled. bit of a hole.
Birch bark and roots can be used as a source for oil of wintergreen which some find useful for head ache. The inner bark of willow is the first source of salicylic acid or aspirin that I know of. While the inner bark from a stem can be chew for some relief the most common way was to make a tea from the inner bark.
From Chagaknowledge.com Q&A: Basically Chaga grows on wild birch trees above the 45th parallel, the extremely hardy nutrients for these trees to survive the wide swings of extreme cold and heat are the basis for the formation of Chaga.