Abstract: To provide the theoretical basis for genetic improvement of Betula platyphylla, the genetic variation of the growth and wood characters of B. platyphylla half-sibling families were studied, and the excellent pulp families were selected, and 32 seven-year-old half-sibling families were measured respectively, and the growth and wood characters of each family were analyzed by ANOVA, genetic parameters were calculated and general combining ability was estimated, multiple selection methods were used to select excellent families and evaluate excellent parents. The results showed that there were significant differences（P＜0.01） in growth and wood characters among families, and the family heritability was 0.71-1.00, the heritability per plant was 2.0-3.0, the coefficient of variation ranged from 5.88% to 49.84%. There was a significantly and strongly positive correlation among DBH, tree height and volume（r:0.70-0.97）, and fiber length to width ratio had a significantly and strongly positive correlation with the fiber length（r:0.69）, while it had a significantly and strongly negative correlation with the fiber width（r:-0.76）. The general combining ability was used to evaluate the excellent parents, and the general combining ability ranges of volume, basic density and fiber length were-0.001 1-0.001 0,-0.04-0.07 and-112.09-77.36, respectively. The maternal parents of A13, A12, A21 and A24 were selected as excellent parents, and three different selection methods, including Brekin multi-trait comprehensive analysis method, principal component analysis method and breeding value method, were used to select the excellent family. After comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the three methods, five excellent pulp families were selected, and the average genetic gain of volume and cellulose reached 12.97% and 3.40%, respectively. A12, A17, A23, A19, A1 were selected as the excellent pulpwood families, which provided material for further breeding of improved varieties of fast-growing B. platyphylla.