Dating Living Giants Without Cutting Them Down | Charleston News

How old is that majestic Angel Oak? Turns out, guessing its age without cutting it down is a whole lot harder than it sounds. Arborists use tricks like measuring trunk diameter and multiplying by species-specific growth rates—but even that’s messy, since live oaks can be hybrids and environments wildly affect growth speed. Core sampling lets you count rings without felling the tree, but it still causes damage and decay can throw off counts. And local history? Storms or development might have replaced older trees with younger ones. So, while you can get a ballpark, the real answer? It’s mostly educated guesswork. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/f736e1161ae8c543