All About the Round-Leaf Birch Tree
This month we are going to talk about the Virginia Round-Leaf Birch trees. They are an endangered tree species that is native to the Virginia area and is the only tree included on Virginia’s endangered species list. (1) This beauty is a small tree with a narrow trunk and leaves that are about 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide and are nearly round with a toothed edge. They can grow up to about 30 to 40 feet and a trunk width at chest level of about 4 to 6 inches. Though this is not one of the giants of the region, it has made a huge impact for tree lovers and conservationists.
This unique tree is founded in the southwestern area of Virginia in Smyth County along the banks of mountain streams. It was once thought that this tree was extinct, then it was found in an area not too far from where it was originally discovered. Since the original founder, back in 1918, listed the Round-Leaf Birch’s location in a different place, no one was able to locate them, and they were thought to be extinct. Maybe the original founder did this on purpose to keep people away from their location in hopes of protecting them from humans? Of course, that’s just speculation on my part.
This tree was listed as endangered in 1978 and was reclassified as threatened in 1994. This change is a good thing! We want to see any species that is on any endangered list move out of the list in the other direction. It takes a lot of work to get any species off of an endangered list and unfortunately there are some species that continue in the wrong direction and eventually become extinct.
So how did the Virginia Round-Leaf Birch tree get on the Endangered list? There are a few factors, includiung how many species are left in the wild and is that species able to reproduce in the wild? The Virginia Round-Leaf Birch tree, at one point, only had 4 adult living trees left in its natural habitat! (2) The existing trees suffered from a lot of vandalism, causing the adult trees and some of the saplings to die. There is speculation that the vandalism occurred because people were afraid that the Federal Government would use the trees as a way to intrude on the rights of the landowners in the area. Some also believe that once the word got out that there were these critically endangered trees, people would dig them up as souvenirs or to study them, and people did do that. Whatever the motivation, humans played a significant role in their decline. It is important to note that the Virginia Round-Leaf Birch also needs to have the perfect environment to grow in, offspring of these trees in the natural habitat struggle to strive if the environment is not just right.
On the flip side, scientists were able to get seeds and germinate them as well as propagating the adult plants. They were able to fill nurseries with these trees and the trees have been doing well in captivity. They were even taken out of the nurseries and planted in and around the areas they were founded, as well as in different places around the state, in other states, and in other countries. (3) Though the wild forms of these trees are struggling, reproductive measures implemented by scientists have been paying off. This was the driving reason that the tree moved out of the critically endangered bracket to the threaten bracket. Let’s hope that we can see this Virginia treasure moved completely off the list and flourishing in its natural environment.
Photo founded at https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7B6X7_the-rarest-of-trees-virtual-reward?guid=de0aa840-7ffd-453a-8151-1d88a97ab719
References:
Informational links:
· https://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/listing-overview.html
· https://www.fws.gov/northeast/pdf/vabirch.pdf
· https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/VirginiaRoundleafBirch.html
· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betula_uber
· https://treetrail.net/betula_uber.html