Paper or Canoe Birch

This tree is found across Canada and the most northern parts of the U.S., but its native range only drops into a small corner of NE Oregon. The trunk has thin, white bark and dark horizontal markings called “lenticels.” As the trunk expands, the bark peels away in paper-thin curls (but it should not be pulled off live trees). The tree is sometimes called “canoe birch” because the bark was used by Native Americans for building canoes.