How to Read the Rings of a Tree

Tree rings

Tree rings can actually tell you how old a tree is because the trees produce a new ring each year. A new ring forms in between the most recent ring and the bark of the tree. This causes the tree to grow wider with one ring marking each year. If you want to be able to read the rings of a tree, you must find someone who can cut a slice of the tree for you.

Things You'll Need

• Tree slice

Instructions

1. Give yourself some time to look over the tree slice. Notice the dark parts of the circle and the lighter parts. These represent the seasons of growth. The lighter parts of the rings are when the tree was growing in the spring. The dark spots of the circles tell you where the tree was growing in the late summer and the fall seasons. By looking at the color of the rings, you can read what season it was created.

2. Learn the terminology the scientists use. Dendrochronology is what scientists call using trees to measure time. When you begin counting the tree rings, you are actually measuring time using a tree.

3. Start counting the rings from the middle of the tree. Don't start from one side and work your way to the other side or you will be counting each ring twice. Start at the middle and choose an end to work towards. Count each ring only once; this will tell you how many rings the tree has. Don't count the bark, which is the outside coating of the tree.

4. Check the thickness or thinness of the ring. Reading a tree ring this way can tell you what the climate was like each year the tree was growing. The better and more ideal the tree's growing conditions were in a particular year, the fatter the ring will be. If the tree didn't get enough water one year, you can expect to see a very thin ring.

5. Combine all of these things to read about the tree's life. If the tree has a light, thin ring just two rings in from the bark, you can tell that two years ago in the spring there wasn't enough water fall for the tree. If you see that five rings in, there is a dark thick ring, you can safely say that five years ago in the late summer or early fall, the tree had plenty of rainfall and ideal conditions for growing.

Tips & Warnings

• Compare your tree findings with past weather conditions. If it looks like it rained two years ago and your tree has a very thick light ring, then you could check spring rain totals for two years ago. If they were good, you would know that you are reading the tree correctly.

• Don't cut out a tree ring yourself. Let professionals cut up the tree so you don't get hurt.