Was watching an old PBS program on TV tonight. Nature does have her way with things.

This show was about some researchers who went around the USA (all over) and took core samples out of many different trees. The tree rings can tell you if the tree was growing fast (large space between the tree rings) or growly slow ( small space between the rings. ) Each year the trees grow slow in the winter and grow fast in spring and summer and fall.

They mounted the tree cores in holders after sanding them to make the tree rings stand out better. Then they examined the rings under magnification and compared the different core samples to the others. They entered all the data into a APPLE II computer (this told me that this Show was about 1883 84 era as that's when the Apple II came out. I purchased one of those babies and got to play with it for a few months before I had to give it back to the State ) They noticed a 22 year cycle of wet years and drought years.

Other researchers were examining the sun spot data and notice that the two cycles were a perfect fit. They put two and two together and said it was obvious that the sunspots on the sun that occur ever 22 years ( back in the 1980s and before this show was aired) effected the earths climate. Evidently the sun gave off much more heat during the sunspot year than other times. So the sun's energy that hitting the earth is not constant. But we all knew that. It was in interesting show but I ended up turning it on and watching the Football game instead. As soon as the first commercial comes on I flip to the next interesting channel. I will not sit there and watch those stupid commercials if I can help it. The remote control was the best invention IMHO.

Quote Originally Posted by condusivecranker View Post
I doubt it. Somewhere, every winter, there is a lake or river that overflows for some amount of time, and we don't see a lot of bare shorelines. These trees have been there for decades, a little water is not going to hurt them. The saplings, maybe, but not the big daddies.
Just remember, last year, all the trees had budded out and then a huge april freeze came in and was thought to kill all the trees off, but they came back. Nature has her way.