smokechase II
Addicted to ArboristSite
Thought this worth its own post.
We have over 1000 year old juniper in Central Oregon.
They are not impressive looking trees. Coming from very tough settings where there isn't enough vegetation to support a fire.
Many look 1/2 dead and like they only have a few years left. (Not true)
These tough sites are the primary reason old trees survive. Fire is the biggest enemy of Juniper so being a scrawny barely alive tree means surviving, cause its in an environment that is too sparse to support fire.
So what can be done is to cut a bottom limb at an extreme angle. Making an oval cut on a limb that is 3-4" in diameter, but where the oval is about 8 inches across the long way.
This gets belt sanded very smooth and viewed under a microscope the age can be fairly accurately determined.
The oval cut 'spreads out the rings' for counting.
Cutting a limb reduces damage to the tree itself.
There are tree ring data bases that show the overall climatic conditions for many US locations. Sometimes over 1,500 years back.
The oldest Juniper locally is 1600 years old.
Anybody else have alternative methods?
We have over 1000 year old juniper in Central Oregon.
They are not impressive looking trees. Coming from very tough settings where there isn't enough vegetation to support a fire.
Many look 1/2 dead and like they only have a few years left. (Not true)
These tough sites are the primary reason old trees survive. Fire is the biggest enemy of Juniper so being a scrawny barely alive tree means surviving, cause its in an environment that is too sparse to support fire.
So what can be done is to cut a bottom limb at an extreme angle. Making an oval cut on a limb that is 3-4" in diameter, but where the oval is about 8 inches across the long way.
This gets belt sanded very smooth and viewed under a microscope the age can be fairly accurately determined.
The oval cut 'spreads out the rings' for counting.
Cutting a limb reduces damage to the tree itself.
There are tree ring data bases that show the overall climatic conditions for many US locations. Sometimes over 1,500 years back.
The oldest Juniper locally is 1600 years old.
Anybody else have alternative methods?
