Trees Tell Stories-Find the Hidden Stories in Their Rings

Did you know trees can tell us stories about the past? When dendrochronologists — scientists who study tree rings — look at a cross-section of a tree ( tree cookie), they see a timeline of a tree's life, and you can too. Count the rings and uncover how old the tree is. Each ring shows a year of growth in that tree’s life, these rings also provide insight into the weather that year and what was happening in the surrounding environment. Rings can tell us how old the tree is and what the climate was like during its life. 

By studying these rings, scientists can go back in time, sometimes more than 1,000 years! We can use tree rings to understand Earth's climate, to see how it is changing today, and to inform future action. 

In the exhibit Trees Tell Stories- Finding the Hidden Stories in their Rings, you can examine the history of a Ponderosa pine cross-section over 350 years old! Follow its historical and climate timeline of the Lake Tahoe Basin and discover the stories hidden in its rings. 

This exhibit was created by Chloe Cervenka, a science education intern through the 2025 TERC Summer Internship for Scholars Program. Among the many projects completed during Chloe’s time at TERC, she dated a cross-section from a Ponderosa Pine that sprouted over 350 years ago in Tahoe City. Under the mentorship of Heather Segale and Alison Toy, Chloe collected historical and climate data to create a timeline of the Lake Tahoe Basin, designing an interactive exhibit for the Tahoe Science Education Center and the Tahoe City Field Station. Chloe would also like to extend her appreciation to Aaron Vanderpool for sharing his expertise in dendrochronology, the science of dating tree rings.