Current Projects
While much of DendroTech's work consists of small project land consultations or collecting & analysis on a site, some endeavors are ongoing. There are a couple of joint ventures currently in the works, highlighted below. If you're interested in collaborating on these or have other works in mind, please feel free to reach out!
Cliffside Dendrochronology in the Arbuckle Mountains
"There's gold up in them thar hills!" - Yosemite Sam
Even better than gold or monetary value, is the richness of environmental knowledge contained in the slow-growing junipers of the cliff faces in the Arbuckle Mountains of Southern Oklahoma.
There are several sites containing multi-century trees (mostly Junipers & Oaks) that are in the sample collection phase. Eventually, the collected cores will be used to provide insights to past climate in the region and provide guidance for park management and ecotourism opportunities. Voucher specimen of the unique plants' foliage & fruits will be preserved & housed in both the Oklahoma State University Herbarium and Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) Herbarium.
Dendrochronology Workshop and Tree-Ring Research @
Wesselman Woods in Indiana
Wesselman Woods is the nation's largest urban old-growth forest, and an all-around fantastic place to be immersed with impressive trees, and an amazing staff who are truly passionate about connecting people to nature! Learn more here: Wesselman Woods
I'm very excited and honored to be providing a dendrochronology (tree-ring science) workshop at Wesselman Woods! 3 hours of immersion in tree-ring talk and hands on experience where attendees will participate in active research towards WW's efforts to quantify tree ages of the old-growth forest.
The workshop was fantastic and I had a fun time interacting with all the wonderful participants! We cored some old trees and learned all about dendrochronology. Now, the work has shifted to crossdating the +130 samples we collected over the weekend and delivering the findings to Wesselman Woods! : )
New Mexico Fire History
Much effort has been put into reconstructing Northern New Mexico's fire history. This project is a collaboration between tree-ring researchers focused on filling in gaps in the fire history on the Southern Rockies. It is in the planning stage, so the ability to provide updates is currently limited. More to come in the following weeks!
Gambel Oak Access Team (GOAT)
Currently, there are no tree-ring datasets published on Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelii). Additionally, there are no oak chronologies published on the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) in the state of New Mexico. In short, there is a dearth of openly available data for dendrochronologists and environmental scientists to work with in the Southwest. This collaborative effort aims to publish Q. gambelii chronologies for the purpose of future research and ease of study for fire histories, dendroclimatology, dendroecology, and potentially, dendroarchaeology.