Tag Archives: stebbins gulch chronology

Climate Change, Drought, Ohio, Projects

An Update on Stebbin’s Gulch at the Holden Arboretum

Summer researchers working in the Tree Ring Lab returned to Stebbin’s Gulch in late May to collect more chestnut oak samples. This increased replication helps us to strengthen our various hypotheses made from the interpretation of our findings.

Our views of the canopy.
Team members recording measurements and extracting a core from this living chestnut oak.
Kendra and Victoria looking at a giant burl on one of the sampled trees.
Team members coring an old chestnut oak along the gulch reaching high into the canopy.

This information is useful in mapping out land use changes in Northeast Ohio. The team identified an abrupt increase in ring width around 1840. They attributed this rise to decreased competition from logging which coincides with the time of most significant settlement in the area.

Read more about their conclusions in the official dendroclimatological report here.