paper birch or become slower-moving ground fires. Since these stands are fire-resistant, they may become seed trees to reseed the area around them that was burned. However, in dry periods, paper birch is flammable and will burn rapidly. As the bark is flammable, it often will burn and may girdle the tree. Wildlife Birch bark is a winter staple food for moose. The nutritional quality is poor because of the large quantities of lignin, which make digestion difficult, but is important to wintering moose because of its sheer abundance. Moose prefer paper birch over aspen, alder, and balsam poplar, but they prefer willow (Salix spp.) over birch and the other species listed. Although moose consume large amounts of paper birch in the winter, if they were to eat only paper birch, they may starve. Although white-tailed deer consider birch a "secondary-choice food," it is an important dietary component. In Minnesota, white-tailed deer eat considerable amounts of paper birch leaves in the fall. Snowshoe hares browse paper birch seedlings, and grouse eat the buds. Porcupines and beavers feed on the inner bark. The seeds of paper birch are an important part of the diet of many birds and small mammals, including chickadees, redpolls, voles, and ruffed grouse. Yellow bellied sapsuckers drill holes in the bark of paper birch to get at the sap; this is one of their favorite trees for feeding on. Conservation The species is considered vulnerable in Indiana and Nebraska, imperiled in Illinois, Virginia, and West Virginia, and critically imperiled in Colorado and Tennessee. Uses Betula papyrifera has a moderately heavy white wood. It makes excellent high-yielding firewood if seasoned properly. The dried wood has a density of and an energy density . Although paper birch does not have a very high overall economic value, it is used in furniture, flooring, popsicle sticks, pulpwood (for paper), plywood, and oriented strand board. The wood can also be made into spears, bows, arrows, snowshoes, sleds, and other items. When used as pulp for paper, the stems and other nontrunk wood are lower in quantity and quality of fibers, and consequently the fibers have less mechanical strength; nonetheless, this wood is still suitable for use in paper. The sap is boiled down to produce birch syrup. The raw sap contains 0.9% carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose) as compared to 2 percent to 3 percent within sugar maple sap. The sap flows later