I am in central/northern NJ, and birches of all kinds do well around here for several years, then decline rapidly. I wouldn't recommend them, as lovely as they are. Just my two cents.

These are the three trees, looking to the west. (the camera batteries were dead yesterday, sorry). One on the right has visible damage. I could have the dead wood clean off by an arborist, but probably not worth the trouble. The other two will probably soon go that way, also have sapsacker drilling. That always seems to bring on carpenter ants.

Seems the odds of birches working out isn't good.

Any other suggestions for this small hillside, full afternoon sun? I can water them first few seasons, if needed. Maybe black cherry, very pretty early season? Such a proud tree. I have maybe 10 wild ones. They are healthy.

(in the background is a small grove of Ailanthus, which don't look that bad if kept clean)

Thanks so much for the previous replies.

Well, I'm not one to recommend river birch usually, but this case perhaps suggests that species. Greater suitability to heat/humidity than many other birch types, and very good resistance to bronze birch borer, the bane of birch in some areas.

I would also suggest yellow birch-Betula allegheniensis-but that is decidedly a tree of cool, northern landscapes. It does though resist BBB well.

+oM

Personally, my yard is getting cooler every year, at least 15 years now. Lost a 40 year old weeping cherry last year. Local tree guy says a late hard frost (March) cracked the root "crown" down the middle. Have all sorts of boxwood damage this year from the extreme past two winters. A couple more winters like that and half of my foundation plants will go.

No idea what's going on in the rest of the world. Have to look into allegheniensis. Thanks.

Yeah, you'll be lucky to find that one in the trade. Nurseries that cater to reforestation efforts might be a good bet. And now, a word or two about Betula papyrifera, aka white birch, paper birch, canoe birch: This tree, native to NE USA and adjacent Canada, all the way up to the Arctic Circle, is much maligned, partly due to confusion between it and the non-native white-barked Betula pendula or European white birch. The latter is a bronze birch borer magnet, and since back some decades, it seemed a non-native plant was always held to be superior to our own native flora, many of these things got planted all over the place. They are not a suitable tree for N. America, due to this same BBB, a native pest of some birch species. BBB can afflict our native B. papyrifera, but if the tree is well sited, ie. head in the sun, roots cool and moist, it actually has very good resistance to BBB. You won't often hear that, even from well educated tree people, but t'is true. Because it has evolved along with the insect, it has reasonably good natural defenses to same.

Now take that same tree out of it's cool, moist environment, plop it down in some stripped-out suburban yard, forget about water, and look, the tree is "sick", meaning of course, BBB got to it, as it does tend to attack stressed trees. There is a concurrent insect problem of birch as well, the birch leaf miner. Larvae of that insect tunnel around within the leaf, causing stress to the tree. But alone, leaf miner is not likely to kill a birch tree. It's just another factor thrown in the mix. Location, location, location!

+oM

Well, W_Tom, that was quite fine. Thank you. I'm no tree expert. But the DW and I have traveled into the Adirondack Park several times. There is a walking trail 1/3 of the way between Newcomb, NY and Long Lake NY that has the most enormous white birches I have ever seen. Way over 2 feet in diameter. Those trees must all be over 100 years old, maybe much more. That's why I have to wonder, how are these "birch" trees so poorly adapted. Do all of them die if it doesn't rain, or too cold, too hot? Got a hangnail, Oh my!

Need more research on Betula papyrifera