Category: Current Projects


Freedom in Ridge Prairie

Had a nice article come out recently in Illinois Antiquity that includes some tree-ring dating of a log building associated with an Underground Railroad site in western IL. If you read the article you will notice that they call the structure the “poison shed” and it was pretty gross, but surprisingly I was able to date many of the samples, though were weren’t able to get a lot. Full Article

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Great time coring southern Alabama log buildings!

Mahsa Mirzakhani

Had a great time meeting up with colleagues (@MRochner86; @dendrotrog; @L_tulipifera et al.) to sample some southern Alabama log buildings the other day. We will use these collections to increase the length of regional long leaf pine chronologies and hopefully provide some information about the construction history of these early Alabama structures. We cored log structures at the Wehle Tract (an Alabama Forever Wild property), the Loachapoka Pioneer Park, a private residence in Montgomery and Popes Tavern and the Karsner-Carroll […]

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University of Alabama Undergraduate research

student stands in front of poster

DRL-member Zach Foley presents his  research on eastern hemlock at the University of Alabama UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH & CREATIVE ACTIVITY CONFERENCE. As part of a larger study to determine the climate (temperature) signal of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), we sampled eastern hemlock at two sites: Savage Gulf state natural area in Tennessee and Bankhead national forest in Alabama. In Alabama in particular eastern hemlock has the potential to have an especially strong climate signal due to their location at the very […]

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