Core Prep

Well for the first time in a long time, I've managed to find a little time to do some core prep from the samples that I took from the Elwha near the fish hatchery. As can be seen in the photograph, this is a core that is in the process of being sanded down to expose the growth rings, of which are the elements of interest for tracking growth over long periods of time. A single core can take over an hour to sand down to the level that the growth rings are clear enough for accurate assessment of age. The process takes 4 differnet grain sizes of sand paper, with the last being 400 grade (or grit) paper. For a little bit of dendrochronology 101, grit refers to the number of abrasive particles that can be found on one inch of said sand paper. This means that the 400 grit paper that is nessisary for this work is extreemly fine, and extreemly slow to work with. Hopefully in the next few weeks my blog will give way to more extisive discription of how dendrochronology works (or at least some more tree and core pictures, hah!).