TREE RINGS-PICTURES: Trees tell the story of central Texas. 
Find out more on Passport to Texas.

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife 

A tree is a living history book. By analyzing its rings, 
researchers can determine the climate conditions of each 
year the tree was alive.

Malcolm Cleaveland is a professor emeritus of 
geosciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. 
He and a team of researchers are trying to determine the 
climate patterns of central Texas.

On a recent day, they take samples from bald cypress 
trees in Guadalupe River State Park. 

 Nat :4

That's the researchers boring holes into the trees. It takes 
a while to collect the samples. 

 Nat :2

Some of the trees aren't old enough. Others, like this one 
have tree rot.

Well, Richard, thank you for trying ... it's all I can do ... We have now 
bored this thing from almost every conceivable angle. :10.4

Cleaveland says if the results show that long droughts 
are fairly common, it will re-emphasize the need for water 
conservation.

These people who say we don't need to conserve water cause we 
can pump as much as we want to out of the aquifer, they're crazy. 
That's the height of insanity. If we experienced a drought like the 
mega drought like 40 years of almost continuous hard drought 
pumping ground water would be an end game that would not work. 
:26.2

That's our show. You can find pictures and more 
information at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and 
Wildlife I'm Cecilia Nasti.

Total sound bite time:			0:36.6
Maximum Script time:			0:48.4	 	 Suggested show time: 85.0 = 1:25