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I was just reading some Aldo Leopold, as any good nature literature lover, as he describes history through the ring-span of a tree.

In A Sand County Almanac, Leopold describes cutting down a dead oak.

He explains, in detail, the events that happened in the surrounding land, that even indirectly affected the tree. He also describes the conditions through which the little acorn had to survive in order to take hold.

It’s really a beautiful few pages. He begins with this excerpt:

There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.

To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.

To avoid the second, he should lay split of good oak on the andirons, preferably where there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his own good oak, and let his mind work the while, he will remember much about where the heat comes from, and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spend the week end in town astride a radiator.

I feel like right now, during this quarantine, no words have rung truer.

We all feel right now how fragile our entire world is. We have never felt so vulnerable or acutely aware of the processes that must happen in order for toilet paper to get to your toilet paper holder.

Spiritual dangers, indeed.

But then, he describes the saw cutting through layers of history, one year or decade at a time:

…and then on a crisp winter’s day, we laid a newly filed saw to its bastion base.

Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer.

We sensed that these two piles of sawdust were something more than wood, that they were the integrated transect of a century, that our saw was biting its way, stroke by stroke, decade by decade, into the chronology of a lifetime written in concentric annual rings of good oak.

If you want to hear the whole story, here, let me read it to you…

I just love this idea of keeping a ring-span record, a chronology in concentric rings, so I put together a nature chronicling exercise below in honor of this beautiful concept.

Tree Ring-Span Journaling Exercise:

Grab your nature journal and locate a tree in your own yard. (This is especially ideal when you plant a new tree.)

If you’re using an existing tree, guess how old your tree is. You don’t need to be precise. Any guess is okay.

If you want to be particular, or give your kids an interesting science project, you can measure the girth and make an estimation from there based on this guide.

Then, draw the same number of rings on a new sheet or use our free tree ring printable.

Draw an arrow to the outermost rings and describe what the tree has witnessed in the last year or two.

Then, make your way inward and describe what history the tree holds from years and decades past.

You could look through your local department of natural resource’s records for relevant events that have happened in your area and plot them on your ring map.

Otherwise, you can scrapbook the major events that have happened in your life through the tree rings.

In honor of this exercise, I started a page in my nature journal for a tree we planted just 2 years ago with a quick Instax picture. It already holds a few stories in its tiny little trunk.

The tree was a gift for my husband. He asked for a red maple. I got him a red maple. He told me that wasn’t right. He wanted a type of maple that carries red leaves. Hehe.

This year, of course, our tree stands undeterred by the great COVID-19 quarantine of 2020 that will end up in history books and in the spaces between the tree rings.

Wouldn’t this be a really neat surprise to leave the next homeowners of the house?

Many of us leave behind the notches on the wall showing our kids’ growth, swatches for the paint we used on the walls, and a list of numbers for contractors. How special would it be for a new homeowner to receive a sweet little tree diary like this? A reminder of all the stories the place holds.

Homeschool Tree Ring Science

Just a note about homeschooling, since most of the world is encountering that right now…

You can tie all of this into a fun little tree ring unit of study for kids of any age.

You can incorporate the tree ring printable from here, the February passage from Sand County Almanac I read above, a sketchbook, and a few trips outside in your curriculum.

For the younger crowd, just keep it simple and teach them about the basic concept of tree rings. Find a stump or a slab of wood and count the rings. You can also make bark rubbings with the side of a crayon in your sketchbook.

Elementary age kids can use the tree ring printable to study the parts of a tree trunk. They can also try the tree aging exercise I mentioned earlier.

High schoolers can study the literature and more about Aldo Leopold. They can also do a more in-depth tree science study and keep a more advanced nature journal.

You can easily encapsulate math, art, science, and literature with this unit. Fun stuff!

Final thoughts

I hope this short literature study has your mind buzzing with thoughts and ideas. I hope you never look at tree rings the same after this!

Please stop back here and let me know how you’re using this exercise (otherwise I’ll never know!) and ask any question you have. I love hearing from you!

From my roots to yours,

Jess