READ: “This 500-Year-Old Tree in California Has a Story to Tell” (New York Times)
By Daniel Griffin
Assistant professor at the University of Minnesota where he studies climate and ecosystem change — past and present — through data collected from tree rings
About two hours north of Los Angeles, on the steep slopes of Mount Pinos, stands an ancient grove of big-cone Douglas fir trees. The telltale signs of decades-long droughts from centuries past lie deep within the trunks of its oldest trees. But inscribed just beneath the bark are traces of the worst drought these trees have ever withstood.