I read Brendon Bosworth’s article on Fallen Leaf Lake with great interest (“The forest at the bottom of the lake,” HCN, 12/24/12). With my dive partner, John Foster, a retired California state archaeologist, I sampled sunken trees from nearby Tahoe and Donner Lake, mainly in the 1980s. In South Lake Tahoe, 16 rooted snags in ancient underwater forests indicated a mid-Holocene drying trend for a period of at least 1,300 years. A rather sobering thought: When will it happen again?

W. James Barry, Ph.D., California senior state park ecologist, retired
Gold Run, California

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Tree tales

by W. James Barry, High Country News
February 4, 2013

<h1>Tree tales</h1> <p class="byline">by W. James Barry, High Country News <br />February 4, 2013</p> <p>I read Brendon Bosworth’s article on Fallen Leaf Lake with great interest (“<a class="external-link" href="../44.22/underwater-forest-reveals-the-story-of-a-historic-megadrought">The forest at the bottom of the lake</a>,”&nbsp;<i>HCN</i>, 12/24/12). With my dive partner, John Foster, a retired California state archaeologist, I sampled sunken trees from nearby Tahoe and Donner Lake, mainly in the 1980s.&nbsp;In South Lake Tahoe, 16 rooted snags in ancient underwater forests indicated a mid-Holocene drying trend for a period of at least 1,300 years. A rather sobering thought: When will it happen again?<br /> <b></b></p> <p><i>W. James Barry, Ph.D., California senior state park ecologist, retired<br /> Gold Run, California</i></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=187101">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">Tree tales</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/45-2/tree-tales/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=116776&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/45-2/tree-tales/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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