Why Silver Birch?

I’d like to tell you about the Silver Birch tree...

...birch trees have been growing in the British Isles for 10,000 years, since the end of the last ice age. It produces both male and female catkins on the same tree, and once pollinated the female catkins produce hundreds of seeds that are born on the wind. It readily colonises new areas of open land, preparing and improving the ground and leading the way for other tree species to begin to move in.

On a practical note, many parts of the birch tree make useful resources. Its wood is easy to work with hand tools and the bark and twigs make good kindling for fire lighting, even when fresh and green.

The birch is a hardy pioneer species and one of the first trees to grow leaves in spring; it is a symbol of new life and light returning to the land. I feel that the silver birch tree is a good metaphor for my work. I help children to re-engage with education and learning in a new and different way. For adults, I aim to open up pathways to interact with the outdoors and hopefully welcome new light into their lives.

https://medium.com/scribe/silver-birch-ffc61e4730aa

I took a walk through the woods.

The silver birch trees were luminous in the thin February light, moon-white, flaking paper trunks glowing softly like ghosts in fog.

Silver birch are the pathfinders, the first to colonise bare ground.

They tend to live for about eighty years and when they die, their bodies are so rich they break down very quickly, leaving behind a dark, fertile soil.

So when the jay comes, drops the acorn, the oaks have somewhere to grow...

Excerpt from 'Silver Birch', a poem by Caroline Mellor