Science and Nature Program and Nature Explorers

Reading Tree Rings: The Art and Science of Dendrochronology
Rose-Marie Muzika has been a visiting curator of ecology at Powdermill Nature Reserve over the past year. With research interests in forest disturbances such as fire, wind, or insect outbreaks, she uses dendrochronology (the study of tree rings) to gain an understanding of how forests change over time. Join us as Rose-Marie shares how dendrochronology provides a wealth of information, and not only about the age of a tree. Each annual growth ring records information about the tree and its environment. Directly we can see evidence in the wood about damaging agents such as fire or insects; indirectly tree rings reveal climate patterns. Tree rings allow us to determine what may have been happening locally or globally, recently or thousands of years ago. After the lecture, Rose-Marie will help us see history in some of the trees right here at Powdermill.

Tree Time
Have you ever seen tree cookies? These aren’t the kind of cookies you eat—they’re slices of a tree, and they can tell us a lot about the trees from which they came! Come investigate tree cookies up close, using hand lenses and your senses of sight and touch. You will even get to draw yourself as a tree cookie! After the activity, children and adults will come back together to see some history in Powdermill’s trees.