Tree Rings

[quick dog]

I cut, split, and stack about four cords of fire wood each year. When you spend extended hours moving around logs and rounds, you get time to think about random stuff. I cut up a big Ponderosa Pine a few weeks ago and made some interesting observations.

The tree was two feet in diameter at chest height. On close inspection, I observed that the tree had about 116 rings. The tree was cut down in 2004, and each tree ring represents a year of growth. Counting backwards, the tree apparently started as a seedling in about 1888.

The innermost rings were especially fat, probably 5 mm wide. So, I looked up some local precipiation records, and 1888-1889 was the wettest year in El Dorado County history. Placerville received more than 78 inches of precipitation in 1888-1889. Normal rainfall is about 35 to 40 inches. The least rainfall in Placerville history was 17 inches.

The inside tree rings were fat because of the high rainfall when the pine seed germinated and grew in the late 1880s. By comparison, I cut down a 75-year-old tree at my place that was less than 10 inches (250 mm) in diameter. The 75-year-old tree was born in about 1930, a much drier period. The average tree ring on my skinny tree was less than 1.7 mm wide.

One might conclude that periods of high rainfall result in large numbers of successful tree seedlings. I wonder if this would explain why some California forests seem to have a disproportionate number of same-sized trees. California's foothill live oak forests are populated overwhelmingly by mature trees. Could it be periods of high rainfall in the late 1800s, and low rainfall totals since then?

Then I looked at my fat tree round again. That tree sprouted from a little pine nut before my wife's grandparents immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine and Switzerland. The American Indian wars were still going. In the late 1880s, my great-grandfather was ranching on open range in western North Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Gold was being mined all around Placerville and my pine tree. My tree was probably more than 20 feet high when my father was born in Etna, Pennsylvania in 1902. The tree was probably 40 feet high by the outbreak of WWI in 1914. Horses and mules were still the principal means of transportation here in Placerville and in Europe where millions were being killed.

The tree was probably 90 feet high by the time I was born in 1945 in Los Anegles where I was born. The population of LA was only 2.5 million. El Dorado County, where the treet lived, had 15,000 citizens. Incidently, the population up here may have been greater during the Gold Rush of the 1850s.

My life span was represented on the tree round by about four inches of tree rings. When you sit in the forest and split tree rounds all day, you have a lot of time to think about it.

In a few weeks, the old tree will be completely gone, burned to warm the house. The ashes of the old tree are spread around the forest, where the minerals and nitrates of the ashes will nourish other grasses, forbes, and trees.

Feel small yet?

 

[SIR HENRY 8]

I cut, split, and stack about four cords of fire wood each year. When you spend extended hours moving around logs and rounds, you get time to think about random stuff. I cut up a big Ponderosa Pine a few weeks ago and made some interesting observations.

The tree was two feet in diameter at chest height. On close inspection, I observed that the tree had about 116 rings. The tree was cut down in 2004, and each tree ring represents a year of growth. Counting backwards, the tree apparently started as a seedling in about 1888.

The innermost rings were especially fat, probably 5 mm wide. So, I looked up some local precipiation records, and 1888-1889 was the wettest year in El Dorado County history. Placerville received more than 78 inches of precipitation in 1888-1889. Normal rainfall is about 35 to 40 inches. The least rainfall in Placerville history was 17 inches.

The inside tree rings were fat because of the high rainfall when the pine seed germinated and grew in the late 1880s. By comparison, I cut down a 75-year-old tree at my place that was less than 10 inches (250 mm) in diameter. The 75-year-old tree was born in about 1930, a much drier period. The average tree ring on my skinny tree was less than 1.7 mm wide.

One might conclude that periods of high rainfall result in large numbers of successful tree seedlings. I wonder if this would explain why some California forests seem to have a disproportionate number of same-sized trees. California's foothill live oak forests are populated overwhelmingly by mature trees. Could it be periods of high rainfall in the late 1800s, and low rainfall totals since then?

Then I looked at my fat tree round again. That tree sprouted from a little pine nut before my wife's grandparents immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine and Switzerland. The American Indian wars were still going. In the late 1880s, my great-grandfather was ranching on open range in western North Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Gold was being mined all around Placerville and my pine tree. My tree was probably more than 20 feet high when my father was born in Etna, Pennsylvania in 1902. The tree was probably 40 feet high by the outbreak of WWI in 1914. Horses and mules were still the principal means of transportation here in Placerville and in Europe where millions were being killed.

The tree was probably 90 feet high by the time I was born in 1945 in Los Anegles where I was born. The population of LA was only 2.5 million. El Dorado County, where the treet lived, had 15,000 citizens. Incidently, the population up here may have been greater during the Gold Rush of the 1850s.

My life span was represented on the tree round by about four inches of tree rings. When you sit in the forest and split tree rounds all day, you have a lot of time to think about it.

In a few weeks, the old tree will be completely gone, burned to warm the house. The ashes of the old tree are spread around the forest, where the minerals and nitrates of the ashes will nourish other grasses, forbes, and trees.

Feel small yet?

As sad as it is to lose trees,esp. big ones its nice to know after there all cut up they still have something to give.I've got 10 arces close to you in Rescue,and has lots of pines and some oaks and I sometimes wonder what all they've been thru.

 

[Alacron]

There is a redwood tree in my backyard I planted as a seedling when I was 5 years old, now it's at least 60 feet tall. It probably looks at me and thinks I've been around forever.
~~

 

[quick dog]

I did not cut down the 116 year-old Ponderosa pine. My neighbor knocked it down, or it may have been diseased and simply fell down. Ponderosa Pines don't live all that long, maybe a few hundred years. They are not like Red Cedars and Sequoias.

I think the huge mass of hidden bugs and molds in the forest are interesting. Trees fall, animals die, pine needles and leaves drop all the time, and the forest organisms clean up everything. Without the carpenter ants, beetles, and fungi, the trees and brush would be a huge mess, or perhaps even die. The depth of the forest litter actually remains fairly constant, although thicker in some areas than others. I throw garbage and greens, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes and oranges, chunks of bread and meat, and egg shells off the deck and down the hill all the time. Only citrus fruits last very long. I am not evn sure what eats this stuff. Some items go in one night. Others may last for weeks.