Amy Hessl, professor of Geology at WVU, together with doctoral student Kristen de Graauw of the Montane Forest Dynamics Lab, have received funding from the West Virginia Humanities Council to use tree rings to provide cutting dates and inferred construction dates for three undated historic log structures in West Virginia. Structures to be examined are the Barracks of Lewisburg, Old Kile Homestead of Upper Tract, and McCoy Fort of Williamsburg.

Tree-ring dating of historic structures provides an annual cutting date for structural timbers, which then promotes pride in preserving historical buildings and deepens our knowledge of a structure’s historical context.

Hessl also serves as lab coordinator for the Forest Dynamics Lab, which focuses on the interaction between climate variability, ecosystem processes and human activities in forested systems.

-WVU-

ah/05/15/2015

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