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How to read tree rings on a cut stump

All year

In places with distinct seasons, a tree typically adds one ring a year, made of a light band grown in spring and a dark band grown later in the season. Wide rings often point to good growing years and narrow ones can point to drought or crowding, so a cut stump is a record of the tree's life.

Why this time of year

Any month works: stumps, firewood ends and cut logs are out in the open all year.

How to notice it

  1. Find a freshly cut stump, log end or firewood round with a fairly flat face, and look at it in bright light.
  2. Pick one dark band and follow it as a circle. Each dark band marks the end of one year's growth, so count the dark bands from the middle out to the bark.
  3. Compare ring spacing: find a stretch of wide rings and a stretch of tight ones. Wide suggests easy years, tight suggests stress such as drought or shade from neighbors.
  4. Treat your count as an estimate. Rough cuts and some tree species blur the rings, and a stressed year can leave a double or a missing ring.

Try this with kids: Count the dark rings from the center to the bark. How old was the tree, and can you find a skinny stretch where it had a hard time?

Word to know: “Earlywood” is the light, large-celled wood grown in spring; latewood is the dark, dense wood grown later in the season.

Safety

  • Stay well clear of active cutting crews and equipment, and wait until work has stopped.
  • Do not climb on or move log piles, which can roll or shift.

Sources

  • oceanservice.noaa.govNOAA NOS: each ring one year of growth; earlywood light thin-walled, latewood dark thick-walled; wide rings favorable conditions, narrow may indicate drought, disease or unfavorable conditions.
  • northernwoodlands.orgNorthern Woodlands Outside Story: bullseye on stumps and cut logs across trails; one ring per year where seasons distinct; earlywood light large cells, later cells darker denser; narrow rings can indicate drought or competition for sunlight.
  • research.fs.usda.govUSFS 1978 red alder note: false rings can form when growth checked by drought then resumes; missing rings reported in many species; rings may be indistinct.
  • ltrr.arizona.eduU Arizona LTRR: absent and false rings exist, with example samples.

Checked against these sources on October 6, 2026.

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