This winter’s snow drought may leave a mark that lasts for centuries.
Justin DeRose, a dendrochronologist and assistant professor of silviculture and applied forest ecology at Utah State University, studies how trees record the history of climate in their rings — wet years, dry years, fire years, and sometimes years so harsh they leave almost no growth at all.
This year, he says, may become a tree-ring marker year across much of the West.
That matters not just because 2026 is so dry, but because very bad drought years appear to be arriving closer together than they once did. And when that kind of stress stacks up over time, forests can become more vulnerable to wildfire, bark beetles, and widespread mortality.
Using tree rings to look back centuries — and sometimes millennia — DeRose helps place today’s snow drought in a much longer climate history. That deeper record can reveal both how forests have endured past extremes and what may be changing now.
On this episode of UnDisciplined, DeRose joins us to talk about drought, disturbance, forest resilience, and what Western trees may already be telling us about the future.
