The growing region for this species is Northern Finland through Northern Russia.  The latter of which is from the region Karelia.  Just as with any highly character marked tree, like Birdseye Maple, trees that develop the Karelian Birch figure are random within forests covering vast areas.  There are strict harvest controls in Finland, and it has been reported that some “illegal” logs make their way to the market from Russia, not all, just some.

Similar to Birdseye, the burl effect in this species is caused by a little critter, and what he leaves behind.  A specific beetle in the growing region, bores into the tree and eats its fill of scrumptious sap and heartwood.  That causes scar tissue to grow over the affected areas.  The interesting part, is that what the beetle leaves behind, the……excrement……becomes the dark part of the burl figure.

When you look at the cross section of a Karelian Birch log, you can see the scar tissue clearly, which looks like “crow’s feet.”  The logs are always rotary sliced to accentuate the burl figure.  In addition, the circumference of the logs is relatively small, therefore the yield from each log is also small.  Still, this species makes an impressing impact visually.