FireApproved

United States / Grow / paper birch

paper birch (Betula papyrifera)
Photo: (c) rboles, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

paper birch

Betula papyrifera · Betulaceae · all Betula records · also called White birch · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Paper birch is on-list in the evidence table. The directional set recommends Betula papyrifera with Firewise, low-flammability, fire-resistant, or fire-resistive language, often attaching placement and maintenance context.

The page nevertheless retains a limited evidence reason. One source notes that peeling bark and multiple trunks can add fire potential, and a separate FLAMITS row is a non-rated bark calorific-value measurement. Those details remain visible beside the listings.

Two hardiness assertions are present, but only the uncertain row supplies a minimum—4—while the applicable USDA-derived assertion has no minimum value recorded. Range evidence, comparisons, and the genus index provide adjacent context without changing the verdict.

Form
tree
Mature height
~50 ft
Light
Part sun
Water need
high
Rated in
Alaska; Black Hills, South Dakota; Global; Maine +4
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Alaska; Black Hills, South Dakota; Global; Maine; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Typed publication scope: 8 scopes across 6 cited fire sources
  • Protect Your Home from Wildfire — Fire Resistant Vegetation and Landscaping · Official scoped edition
    • AK; partial normalized coverage · 2005-04-27

      Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.

  • Firewise Plant Material for the Black Hills · Official scoped edition
    • Black Hills (SD footprint); partial normalized coverage

      The page explicitly limits itself to the Black Hills, and NFPA Firewise's archived 2006 plant-list index files it under South Dakota. FireApproved publishes 47 exact genus or species owners from 48 printed rows. This is bounded Black Hills context, not statewide South Dakota coverage or a finding that a plant suits a particular site.

  • Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) · Official scoped edition
    • MD; partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-08

      Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.

    • NJ; partial normalized coverage

      New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.

    • WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26

      West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.

  • Maine fire-resistant plant list · Official scoped edition
    • ME; partial normalized coverage · 2013-10-23

      Maine Forest Service presents a partial list for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure. FireApproved publishes only 39 unique exact current/accepted matches plus Rhus typhina from the source's explicit parenthetical; unresolved, abbreviated, misspelled, absent, and duplicate-owner rows remain held.

  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

  • Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
    • VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15

      Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AK, CO, CT, DC, DE, IA, ID, IL, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AK, CO, CT, IA, ID, IL, IN, MA, ME, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
USDA hardiness
An exact source temperature is retained below the published zone scale; no zone is invented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

28

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

28 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alaska (AK)
  • Colorado (CO)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Idaho (ID)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maine (ME)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Montana (MT)
  • North Dakota (ND)
  • Nebraska (NE)
  • New Hampshire (NH)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oregon (OR)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode I. (RI)
  • South Dakota (SD)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Washington (WA)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)
  • Wyoming (WY)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (7)

Corroboration (4 rows from 4 sources)

  • Protect Your Home from Wildfire — Fire Resistant Vegetation and Landscaping — Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, Community Forestry Program · April 2005 · original source Corroboration Expert-curated lineage: unknown

    “Following are a few of the plants that may be used in firewise landscapes in Alaska if placed and maintained appropriately.”

    Listed as Birch — Betula papyrifera; the source conditions these examples on appropriate placement and maintenance.

  • Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) — Maryland DNR, New Jersey DEP, and West Virginia Division of Forestry · 2015 archived PDF · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: md-nj-wv-template-family

    “relatively resistant to fire”

    Listed as Betula papyrifera (Paper/White Birch). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Not tolerant of heat, poor soils, or pollution. Insect problems

  • Firewise Plant Material for the Black Hills — NFPA Firewise Communities · 2004 scan / 2007 archive · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: firewise-national

    “Large shrubs & trees: Paper birch — Betula papyrifera”

    The introduction describes all table entries as fire-resistive plants that can be used in landscaping.

  • Maine fire-resistant plant list — Maine Forest Service, Forest Protection Division · MFS-list-updated-2013-10-23 · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: me-mfs-fire-resistant-plants

    “listed as fire-resistant for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure” · original source

    Maine Forest Service includes Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) on its partial fire-resistant plant list for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure. The printed scientific name is a unique current-name match to this record.

Listed without a rating (1)
Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    “calorific value (kcal/kg): 7165”

    FLAMITS record 5036; Combustibility measurement; plant part bark; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Hough1969-3; sampling june. Primary study Hough1969: Hough, W. A. (1969). Caloric Value of Some Forest Fuels of the Southern United States. Res. Note SE-120. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station.

Same genus in the directory · the Betula group page

Guides that discuss this plant

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Betula papyrifera (Paper birch, White birch). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/betula-papyrifera/. Last verified 2026-08-23.