In the winter, I was collecting live tree cores in a mixed Douglas fir and pinyon pine stand in the Book Cliffs. The longest cores that I brought back to the lab were about 350 to 370 years old: Germinating in say, 1650. To go beyond that, I have begun experimenting with dead wood. The stand has been disturbed by fire, insects, and tree cutting over the past several hundred years. Trees have died, but the wood remains. So far, I have a piece of Douglas fir for which I was able to determine a germination date of 1303, about 720 years ago. Yesterday, I was out looking for more. I got another good sample of Douglas fir (above), but the real revelation was three separate Rocky Mountain juniper trees (below).
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