Return of the Eight-Foot Cookie
Posted in Around the Garden on May 8 2013, by Matt Newman
The tree cookie is back! Though you’d be forgiven for having no idea what I’m talking about. As a matter of fact, very few of us around the office have seen this section of sequoia up close and personal—at least until now. But with the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden rolling out this classic display after such a long absence, I figure it makes sense to reintroduce everyone.
The history is the simple bit. We start with a brief definition: Tree Cookie — noun — A horizontal round cut from a tree trunk. It’s the cross-section that allows arborists and botanists to pin down the exact age of a tree by counting off the concentric rings in the wood. It also provides clues to the life of the tree based on the density of the rings, anomalies in shapes and patterns within the wood, and other unique signifiers pointing to a healthy or harried history. For reference, we’ve got over 1,600 rings worth of trunk data to parse in this one tree cookie alone. That places the tree’s start at around the year 223!