BIRCH SAP: How NOT TO HARVEST! - Do THIS instead...
FREE EBOOK DOWNLOAD - now on: rathwulvenbushcraft.com/
Hi all - here is an explanation on why the "traditional" way of harvesting birch sap is anything but eco-friendly and sustainable. Don't make the same mistakes I made and check out the video for an alternative technique. Also, here are some additional sources and references for you:
Trummer's & Malone's paper: tinyurl.com/rwg8zdc
Wildway Bushcraft: tinyurl.com/yx8ygtfo
Nordic Bushcraft: tinyurl.com/umgxj43
Forest Pathology: forestpathology.org/
Please watch the video to the end to learn how not to harvest birch sap and what to do instead. Being critical about our own set of skills (or the lack of them) is essential for growing as a bushcrafter. Bushcraft should always go by our credo: Nature first, bushcraft second. Please also share this tutorial / presentation with other woodsmen, survivalists or outdoor enthousiasts. Spreading the word helps to combat misinformation and carelessness resulting in unnecessary damage of our ecosystems. Thank you.
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Disclaimer: All pictures used are offered under the regulation of creative commons and do not ask for an attribution. I did nevertheless add all sources to give credit to the respective makers. If no source is mentioned, the picture either has been taken by me or from Wikipedia.
That was enlightening Rathwulven, you have probably saved a tree over here as I was foolishly going to try the drilling method, every day is a school day thank you. Stay safe over there 🌳👍🏻
Glad to hear that this clip was of help :-) greetings to the green country, I miss the Wicklow Mountains - stay safe and healthy!
And this is how the Internet stopped me from unintentionally harming birch trees...
Awesome - thanks for your comment, comrad headcrab. Watch out for Gordon Freeman alright? ;-)
I was thinking about tapping my birch so I started doing research. Extremely happy to come across this production, this technique works. Collected a few gallons from branch tips! Getting about a quart per day from my heaviest dripper. Thank you Rathwulven
Hi there - thanks for sharing your feedback, especially as there are some folks around here who still claim that the technique will not work (but also never tried it). Great to hear about the nice harvest - enjoy! :) All the best Ralf
This is absolutely correct. I Denmark the government owns some of the Forest and they describe exactly this method if you want to harvest birch sap in there forest's.
Hey Jeppe, thanks for that remark, did not know that. Has been 20 years since I've last been in Denmark, hope to get there again sometime in the future.
jeppe larsen: And do they /you find grown-up birches with low branches? Or use young trees? When it comes to leaves for medicine, they should be harvested from adult trees. Maybe sap is OK from young ones.
Perfect explanation - there needs to be more content like this. Thanks for showing people how to harvest responsibly.
Thanks Laappi, appreciate your comment!
Yes, denmark cant afford to lose trees
Thanks! I’ll try this method
Hi Warren - let me know how it goes for your, we are about to hit the season again. :)
Look into terrain theory. Good advice on harvesting birch sap - will do!
Really good vid I like how you don’t just tell us what not to do you tell us how to do it right if you do it at all. I hope I haven’t killed my 3 birch trees in my garden by drilling and plugging the holes.
Hi there, thanks for the feedback. Well that happened so let’s hope for the birches to be alright and do it better next time. Mistakes happen. :-)
@@RathwulvenBushcraft Yep; Thanks for the reply.
Awesome video. Thank you so very much! ❤️
You are welcome - thanks to you for your view and comment, appreciate it!
Thanks for this! My dad has 1 silver birch tree on his garden and we was about to do it the wrong way. Most the videos on youtube are showing you the wrong way. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment. :) What you wrote is absolutely right, and to be fair: I don't want to blame others, I made the same mistake for years myself. Good luck trying this, let me know how it goes. :)
@@RathwulvenBushcraft Kind of feel bad now as it is only for a drink as you say, it is a beautiful tree would hate to ruin it! The 'most viewed' videos showing you how to do it are all wrong! I shall let you know what we end up doing. Thanks again. Wish your channel all the best I subscribed 👍👍
Finally an informative, concise and very important message. You bet! I'll share this information. So many videos show & tell -how-to on many subjects, but rarely include the post-consequence of human action. This video is so refreshing! Thank you 🌳👏
First of all thanks for the view, the comment and for sharing. Glad to hear that you want to spread the message. We live in times of "infotainment", also on KZhead. We try to make a difference by keeping the channel factual and educational, without the "show" part so to speak. Glad to hear you like it, that means we're doing it right :)
Wow thank you. I have had a bad conscience when drilling holes into birches last year. I will use this technique here in future. A very good advice.
Hi ReflektorX, thanks for your comment. I'd say: Go easy on the conscience, I kept drilling for some 8 consecutive years because I simply did not know any better. Hence the video. Have fun harvesting sap!
Excellent advice, thank you!
Hi Brian! You are very welcome - feel free to share the message 👍🏻 Thank you for your comment and the view!
Thank you for your wise and informative instructions . I look forward to trying this method.
Thanks for the comment. Did you already get to it? :)
I cut a branch one time in early spring, and sap fairly randomly out. I’m going to harvest some sap this spring 😊
Umm fairly “ran” out 😂
THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION GREATLY APPRECIATED
You are welcome, thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for sharing this.
You are very welcome Mena, thanks for watching and commenting!
Awesome! I was thinking of collecting tree sap and always thought that the normal way seemed counter intuitive. This is very insightful
Thanks for the feedback!
Thank you very much for this very useful information 👍
You are very welcome, thanks for the comment!
Thank you very much sir! Much appreciated
You are very welcome, thank you for the view and for commenting.
The "How To" starts at 7:28
Ingenious! Thank you!!!
Hi Kelli, thank you for your comment. :) How's the harvest going? :)
@@RathwulvenBushcraft I have not tried this just yet it's nice to know I wont wipe out an entire forest when I do start experimenting. I mean look at what we did to the chestnut tree.
@@RathwulvenBushcraft btw...can you tap other trees for water...say maybe pine trees, red alder, etc.
I just came home from doing it the old way for the first Time. Now i feel guilty. Thank you for educating me. I Will taket it to heart
Thank you for your comment, first of all. Mistakes happen. To all of us. :) I appreciate if I could inspire you to do better next time. Have a good one!
Thanks for your care. How dod you ensure it doesn't bleed to death though? No mention of closing the cut wound afterwards..?!
Immensely happy I found this video directly after finding a tapping tutorial vid. Thank you for teaching people the conscious way of doing this and I hope my comment helps spread this video further
Thank you for sharing man! 🙏🙏🙏💚
Hi Casey - you are very welcome. If you want, feel free to share the video with others. Thanks also for your comment :)
Thank you for educate it well, so that the birch can life.
Immer gerne, danke fürs Reinschauen :)
This is great info! Thanks!!do you have a 1 min version of this to spread on stories? I've seen one the other way that damages trees and that led me to look up if that damages trees and found your video.
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hervorragendes Video! Vielen Dank für deinen Beitrag. Sehr professionell erklärt 👍👍👍
Danke dir
Wow 😮 GREAT VIDEO 😲😆😮👏👏 I did good I did not want to drill a hole into the my tree I have many birch 🌳 trees in my backyard in Alaska I did not want to drill a hole so I cut a branch I got a whole bunch of SAP just from that little tiny twig that I had cut so grateful that I knew what I was doing even though I didn’t know what I was doing 🤳🏻😆 Ive been living in the Ak bush now since 2008 💃🏾
Thanks for this information. I do want to add; if you heat up your blade, the heat will alter the strength of the metal, making your knife more prone to chipping / other damage. Simply be aware in case you're about to plunge your expensive bushcraft knife into the coals...
You're welcome. And a fair remark here on the blades. Depends on the respective steel though - then again that's a subject for an entirely different video. A long one even. :D
What is the tool that you use to draw the water out?
Great advice
Thanks :)
Cool video
Thanks mate
Hello, how to stop sap coming from the branch or it Close self after sometime. what is best thing to stop sap from the branch.
Hey JDK Sweden, thank you for your question. The twig will heal by itself: Usually part of the twig will die off, forcing the tree to build a barrier in the following node. The tree then rejects the dying part. Consider this somewhat comparable to a proces of coagulation. Some folks use bee wax to cover the wound, too. But in my experience, this does not really add something to the healing process. Have a good one!
7:41 can the knife be sterilised via alcohol rather than heat as some people have stated it damages the blade?
I've been curious on the safest way to tap trees and the branch so far seems to be the best.. I saw one other where they only made a slice for a hole and made a V-shape funnel underneath with the bark. No taps or deep holes. They then used pine pitch to seal the wounds. Is this method safe as well?
Great question. I must be honest here: What do you regard as "safe"? I would not even use that word, cause the key is the so called cost-benefit-ratio. As any (!) cut in the kambium damages the tree regardless of the shape and size, I see no reason to engage in any of these techniques just to harvest a couple of hundred millilitres of sap. Every wound caused to a tree can potentially be contaminated by pathogens. Keeping that in mind, it becomes quite apparent that one should generally keep ones hands off the main stem or bark. Hope that answers the question - if not, feel free to reach out :)
@@RathwulvenBushcraft Yes, only a liter or so. I was watching a survivalist amongst many other videos about sap harvesting, as well as yours. I understand that risk is always involved, even with us humans getting a small cut, ignoring it, and it getting infected. Trees heal from my understanding, otherwise we wouldn't cut branches off at the risk of losing an entire tree! My idea of safe(er/est) is more natural in every way possible. I've seen videos on splicing trees and succulents. I would use a plug (if no lower branches available) from the exact tree I had tapped to lessen possible fungus transfer and make the hole as shallow as possible to get the desired amount. I'm more curious about the pine sap part since it's from a different tree altogether. Closing and protecting the hole is the most important part. In the splicing, they tied the branches good and tight but I can't remember what kind or how they treated the cloth, if at all. I'm only really looking at this from a survival standpoint and would like to practice because that's what a good survivalist does, not potentially put a large amount of trees at risk to make a gallon of syrup, which I highly doubt any survivalist would do because the sap itself is more valuable when considering SHTF conditions. ETA: I rewatched your video because it had been too long for me to remember, hence, taking notes like I said in my other comment!
I will be doing more research but taking notes since this was only my first time around watching videos and won't be attempting this year. I want to do things the best way possible.
How do you stop it from flowing when you collect it through the branches?
Thanks for your excellent question: Young shoots are incredibly regenerative and tend to heal very well in the first or sometimes second node of the young twig. In the rare occurrence of a worst case the tree will form a knot at the main stem and reject the shoot.👍
I put some info in the video description, feel free to check it out ✌🏻
Thank you for this useful info, but if I don't wanna heat up my knife will disinfecting it with alcohol or a germicide work too?
Hi Zen, thanks for your question. The knife is not the issue - microorganisms, spores and other pathogens are in the air and hence can cause infections. Out in the woods there are myriad types of mold, fungi and more to be found, nature is alive and hosts myriad organisms invisible to the human eye. Imagine cutting yourself with a sterile scalpel for example, the wound still being exposed to soil, wood dust, spores and more afterwards. Hope that makes sense, if not please feel free to reach out again. Thanks!
@@RathwulvenBushcraft yeah it does make sense, maybe I'll consider adding razor blades to my kit for the early springtime then, because heating up knives can really worsen the steel quality, thank you
Then again is it really going to matter whether I heat it up or not if I'm only going to be cutting off a small branch that likely won't carry a potential infection further into the tree trunk? I do want to minimize the harm, but I think that if the twig is low enough on the tree that I can use it for sap collection easily, it's going to be exposed to the dust, soil and fungi sooner or later after I cut it and it's gonna fall off anyway
first 10 minutes, I knew I would like you and your content. good looking out for the trees!!! mwa*
Thank you for the kind comment, makes my day. :)
Thank you I wish more people cared.
Thanks for your comment Jeff - well there is only one way to help people understand, and that is by pointing out errors without blaming them. As mentioned I made the same mistake for years, just did not know better. Feel free to share :) Have a good one!
Damn, i drilled 2 holes yesterday,each hole delivered 1.5L now the flow in the tree stopped completely. No clue if its my fault or just because today was a lot colder. Sadly the trees are 30+y and no lower branches are available
I haven't done any harvesting ever, for the sole reason of not knowing whether my actions are harmful. So my question is, could you use pine sap to close the wound, whether that be a cut branch or on the trunk? Or does this cause issues?
Fair question, thanks for asking. The answer is a resounding "No", though, simply due to the fact that pine and birch are two totally different species. It might seem like little far-fetched comparison, but you also would not take a blood transfusion of a maki or bonobo just because they are humanoid in appearance, right? Trees have their own immune system and healing strategies, birch in that case is perfectly capable of doing its own "coagulation" without any resin from other trees. So just stuck to the branch-method and let the tree do its work, I'd say.
@@RathwulvenBushcraft Alright, I was just looking it from a perspective that it's not in circulation but applied on the surface as a glue or antiseptic agent. I've heard you can cover your own cuts and minor wounds with it due to these properties. Of course I'd cook it first before use. Anyway I really want to cause the absolute minimum strain, the tree needs me way less than I need it so I should accommodate the tree as much as I can, that's how I look at it.
What are the potential yields from this method?
Hey Josh, thanks for commenting. I am not fully sure how to answer that question as far as I only harvest sustainably, meaning that once I got my container filled I am usually giving the tree the time to heal - which happens rather quickly as usually the twigs start "coagulating" after a single night or day. So within reasonable demand, this method just works fine. It would not work for highly industrialized birch sap farms though. Hope that makes sense - if not, please reach out to me and ask if I need to specify something. Thanks.
But if you plug the hole when you're done won't that stop any infections or killing of trees? I'm sure I seen Ray mears plug a hole saying it's the most important part of the process to keep the tree as it was.
Anybody see the face in that tree at minute mark 4:54 ?
Hmmm not entirely convinced. I have tapped trees decades ago that are still healthy strong and alive. Is the problem more likely to be not using a live bit of wood to bung the drilled hole? Preferably a branch growing on the same tree?
As mentioned in the video, the respective studies and sources are linked in the info box. Feel free to check them out, they provide the necessary context and understanding👍🏻
IF LATER TO BE USED AS FIRE WOOD
Thanks for your comment, Fred - for as far as I personally pay a lot of attention to sustainability, I use dead wood for camp fires anyway. There is plenty to be found in woodlands and I see no need to cut trees (especially as living trees would take ages anyway to dry). If you got to cut some on your property this is a different story, of course.
Whoops I just tapped a birch tree, but I will do this instead next time
Thanks for commenting - and no worries, mistakes happen to all of us. Next time you'll know. :)
Treebeard of Fangorn forest : I told u so🥲
🌳
Thanks for the info. We have a family of wood peckers who have been punching holes in our trees---killing them. lucky for me they are not very timid so they will be easy to shoot.
Hi icicicles, I understand where you are coming from, I just want to add a thing here: Most woodpeckers deliberately target dead wood, that is either dead standing trees or main branches cut off from a tree stem as these are the only locations for woodpeckers to find food. The only exception I know is the Russian spotted woodpecker which seems to indeed tap birches to harvest sap (and by the way is responsible for the expression "swallowing woodpecker"). I am not sure if you are dealing with this particular variety. In general though, woodpeckers serve an important role in our ecosystems, keeping parasites like bark beetles at bay. I am just throwing this in as I personally like to interfere as little as possible with nature's interdependencies and/or symbioses. I cannot make any decision for you, nor do I intend to - personally I would not shoot those birds though if I were in your place. Have a good one, and thank you very much for your comment!
And another thought that just pops into my head: Russian spotted woodpeckers act on instinct whereas we as human beings have the power to be self-reflective. My video mainly aims at those propagating the idea that one can simply drill into living trees for a single drink which, in essence, is more of a luxury than essential for our human survival. That does not mean one cannot harvest birch sap responsibly, hence the video. :-)
💚👍✌
💚👍🏻
@@RathwulvenBushcraft appreciate the video it's in-tune true harmony with mother nature. thanks again bro
How sad that trees get harmed, killled. People don't know this, I didn't. What about making the hole much shorter, just 1,5 cm? Since the sap flows at the surface but not inside the stem. Your example is not a Birch-tree; It is hard to find an adult birch-tree with low branches, do you propose using a ladder? And can the wound be used next year, so as not to use many trees?
A hole is a hole - a wound is a wound. So as stated in the information & studies linked in the info box, any drill hole is a hot spot for contaminants. Adult birches do feature low-growing twigs frequently - if one does not feature those, the next one will. If there'll ever be a day in which birch trees feature twigs too far up to reach without any tool or help, I'd love to hear it right away cause this would be sensational. In regards to "reusing" a tree: As we do not drill holes to unreasonably endanger trees for the sake of a couple of hundreds of ml, we also do not reuse such holes. Cut twigs though increase the chance of new shoots growing at the node, which basically creates two new spots to cut at out of the one we already did.
@@RathwulvenBushcraft Thanks for reply, I think the risk of disease also depends on the original health and immune defense of the birch tree, where it grows. And what about praying for it, giving it love and gratitude, might that not strengthen it too? And is there not risk of animals to destroy the installation if one puts a container on the ground for the sap to drip into? not to speak of ants and insects...
.... whattt.... ? there was about 3 minutes of necessary content here... he didn't even show you how to do it, he mentioned all the basics that everyone on nearly every video mentions... then went straight on to talk about branches being pruned at 45' angles :S was he saying you can drain the sap through pruning the branches ? it would make more sense to use cut branches as plugs for any type of hole you create ... very confusing, I still don't even know if he used the knife to stab a hole in the tree (very rough will often lead to infection - drilling is often most advised), or if he just advise to cut a branch and drain fluid that way; which would take 10X longer to drain the same volume of water
Hi Mark. Frankly spoken I am having a little trouble understanding your confusion in regards to the video, yet I hope I can elaborate and take away some of your confusion: As you mention yourself, the first point dealt with is the harmful, "wrong" technique of cutting/drilling into the tree. It is absolutely irrelevant which tool is used - any perforation of the bark and cambium layer will cause a wound in the tree which, as you indicate yourself, just creates an increased chance of causing an infection. I have listed the respective sources including the in-depth studies in the info box - as mentioned in the video, feel free to have a look at these sources for further explanation. You then also mention the "just plug the hole"-approach which, as also explained in the video, does neither guarantee any healing of the wound caused to the tree, nor a prevention of any sort of infection. Hence the second technique as illustrated in the video. Finally to your remark about the speed of harvesting sap: I can guarantee you that - with the alternative technique explained in the video - you will be able to easily fill an entire jar/bottle over night. It is important to mention that speed is of no relevance for bushcraft practises, as every use of natural resources should be done in moderation and in a sustainable and patient way. Hope this is in the interest of your comment. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. Have a good one.
Save trees, less effort. Win/win.
Exactly. :)
Do not heat your bushcraft knife in the fire: you will completely ruin the heat treatment of the steel. Only ever heat the blade of a cheap low-quality 'chinesium' knife. xx
Well that does depend on the steel of course but definitely a point to consider, thanks for adding that. :)
You remind me of indigenous people, their the only ones here in Canada that live and respect mother nature, your a good man!
Thank you so much for your kind words. Funnily enough I had the honour and privilege to meet descendants of the Ojibwe tribe - I learned so much from their way of living and I am humbled and grateful for this experience. Feel free to share the video and hence the message. :) Have a good one!
Wery much talk before conclusion
Thank you for your feedback - I did indeed intend to go in-depth with this one. If you have any further remarks on how to improve content like this, please let me know. I appreciate any input. :)
I have seen someone plug the hole with a fresh debarked branch Then sawing off the excess Edit: Nevermind. I see how it can fail in one of your pictures in this video
May I recommend the sources and studies linked in the info box again? Worth a read. :)