Idea Blog (2-24-10): Telling the Age of Trees

Everyone always says that reading a tree's age is so easy..."Just count the rings!" Little do they know that sometimes, tree's rings aren't so visible. Other times, there are rings that are so close together you don't really even know if its one or two. Therefore, I took this 'idea blog' and turned it into my 'research blog.'

Brief overview:

Did you know you can tell how old a tree is by how many rings are on the trunk? Tree trunks grow thicker every year by adding a new ring of growth. New growth takes place in the cambium. By counting the rings, people can tell the age of the tree.

You can also find out how rainy or dry a season was by looking at the tree rings. During a rainy season, the rings will be thicker because the tree is getting more water. During seasons that are dry or during a drought, trees do not get as much water, so they do not grow as much and the tree rings are smaller. (Source)

Okay, but what happens when the rings are difficult to read? I think that based on what I've experienced thus far, I will have better luck counting rings from trees that are freshly cut. I was baffled because the rings in one of the trees I photographed didn't seem to exist anymore. The cracked edges though lead me to think the stump has been weathered too much. I am pretty set as far as my "idea's" go now with this project. So from now on, I will probably be posting in my "idea" blogs, words to describe my work and other artist statements.