River Relief

February 4, 2013

Feb. 12 - Big Muddy Speaker Series - Rocheport 2013

"Reading Rings from the River -
a 14,000 year history of climate, carbon and change in tree rings"

presentation by Rich Guyette, dendrochronologist with Missouri Tree Ring Lab, University of Missouri, Columbia

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

7 p.m. presentation
lower floor of the Les Bourgeois Vineyards Bistro 
in Rocheport, MO (directions below)

Presentation is FREE and open to the public! Come early to purchase a great dinner upstairs at the Bistro!

Rich Guyette is all about tree rings. As a founding member of the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory, he and his colleagues use their expertise in reading, archiving, analyzing and storing tree rings to provide baseline data useful in a wide variety of fields. From fire histories to drought mapping, from carbon sequestration modeling to climate histories, the information found in these tree rings is wide-ranging.

One of their long term projects has been locating and analyzing ancient "sub-fossilized" oak trees embedded in the alluvial sediment along Northern Missouri rivers including the Missouri, the Grand and other Grand tributaries. With the information they've collected, they have created a database of midwestern climate going back 14,000 years.

Next time you're climbing over piles of driftwood along the Missouri, keep in mind that some of these logs are ancient time capsules of climate and history.

Directions

• Take I-70 to the Rocheport, MO, exit (Exit #115). It's the first exit east of the Missouri River.

• Head north toward Rocheport.

• After about a mile, turn left at the sign for Les Bourgeois Bistro. Follow the signs to the Bistro. You will probably need to park in the lot above the Bistro and walk the trail down.

• The presentations are held in the lower level. You can either enter at the restaurant entrance then go down the stairs to your left past the bar, or you can follow the walk to the right of the restaurant and enter through a glass door into the lower level.

• 14020 W. Hwy BB, Rocheport, MO (click for Google Map)