New Hampshire

Outside/Inbox: Do trees age?

Published

1 year ago

January 31, 2025

Every other Friday, the Outside/In team here at NHPR answers listener questions about the natural world. Today’s question comes from Will Heap, calling from Coulterville, California, just outside of Yosemite National Park.”

“Driving past a beautiful forest yesterday, I had the realization that I don’t understand how trees age… So my first question is: How does aging work? Is it a breakdown of cells or in the efficacy of cells? And then my second question is: Do non-animal species such as plants, trees in particular, age the same as human cells?… What limits the age of a tree?

Producer Justine Paradis counted tree rings to see what she could find.

Transcript

Justine Paradis: For many of us, aging is a matter of great concern. But it turns out it’s weirdly tough to define what aging actually is, even in humans.

Deborah Roach: Aging itself is the accumulation of damage and the decline of function with increasing age.

Justine Paradis: This is Deborah Roach, a biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. In her career, Deborah has studied the evolution of aging in plants. And it’s a topic that defies easy answers.

Deborah Roach: Disappointingly, I think trees are a difficult species to begin to look at the questions of aging.

Justine Paradis: Deborah studied a small leafy plant called Plantago lanceolata. She compared the performance of 1-year-old seedlings to 3-year-olds, and she found some differences based on age.

Deborah Roach: Seed size is smaller… germination is smaller. In other words, their offspring are lower quality.

Justine Paradis: But Plantago is a weedy, short-lived plant. It’s more challenging to study trees.

Deborah Roach: You want to be able to follow individuals from the time of birth all the way through the time of death… and the trouble is that trees often live to, you know, 80 years, several hundred years, or even other species like the bristlecone pine trees, they live thousands of years.

Justine Paradis: One measure of aging is a change in ability to reproduce. And in some tree species, scientists do observe a peak and then decline in reproduction as trees increase in size. But other tree species just keep on making babies. There’s a bristlecone pine known as Methusaleh which, at nearly 5000 years old, is the oldest known tree on earth. In the ‘70s, when a US Forest Service employee collected a pine cone from Methuselah, he found that its seeds had a 100 percent germination rate. They all grew into viable and healthy seedlings.

Deborah Roach: It’s not just that they can grow, not just that they can survive… these pine trees… can still make high quality offspring too.

Justine Paradis: Another measure of aging happens on a cellular level. As human cells replicate, the DNA in our cells is copied, over and over. But over time, all that copying starts to degrade the DNA. When that happens in our stem cells, it’s a big deal. Stem cells are important to regenerate our tissues, blood, and neurons. And when they age, we notice. Our hair gets grey and our skin loses its elasticity.

In plants, the equivalent to a stem cell is called a meristem. Meristems make new leaves and new branches. But unlike human stem cells, it looks like plant meristems may not age, in at least some species. So, “theoretically, trees can be immortal organisms.” That’s a direct quote from a scientific review by a couple dendrologists published in 2020, titled “On tree longevity.”

The authors lay out evidence that trees don’t die because of genetically-destined cell decline. Instead, they’re killed by some external event, like a wildfire, insect attack, or the swinging of an ax.

When it comes to super long-lived trees like Methuselah, they tend to grow very slowly in pretty harsh environments, where not much else can live.

In short, the reason that some trees can live for millennia is simple: they’re really good at surviving.

If you’d like to submit a question to the Outside/In team, you can record it as a voice memo on your smartphone and send it to outsidein@nhpr.org. You can also leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER.

Outside/In is a podcast! Subscribe wherever you get yours.

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New Hampshire

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Published

8 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

New photo released in unsolved 1997 homicide of a N.H. woman

Local News

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” said the family of the victim.

A new photo has been released of the victim in a nearly 30-year-long unsolved murder case, in the hope of finding any new potential witnesses in the cold case, New Hampshire officials said.

“Our family wants to know what happened, who did this and why,” the family of Rosalie Miller said in a press release. “We miss her and want to give her peace.”

Miller was last seen on December 8, 1996 at her apartment in Manchester. At the time of her disappearance, Miller had plans on meeting friends in the Auburn, New Hampshire area, officials said.

Her body was found on January 20, 1997 in a partially wooded spot on a residential lot along the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn, officials said in the release.

The autopsy report declared Miller’s death a homicide by asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation, N.H. officials wrote.

As part of a new effort to garner public help with the case, an “uncirculated” photo of Miller, 36, is being distributed “in hopes it may jog the memory of someone who saw or spoke with her in the winter of 1996,” Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall announced on behalf of the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit in a joint press release.

Investigators are especially hoping to talk to anyone who was in contact with Miller in December of 1996 or anyone “who may have seen her in the vicinity of the Londonderry Turnpike in Auburn during that time,” officials said in the release.

The newly released photo of Rosalie Miller, 36, who was strangled to death nearly 30 years ago. – Attorney General John M. Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark B. Hall

“We are releasing this new photograph today because we believe someone out there has information, perhaps a detail they thought was insignificant at the time, that could be the key to solving this case and bringing justice for Rosalie and those who loved her,” Senior Assistant Attorney General R. Christopher Knowles, New Hampshire Cold Case Unit Chief said in the release.

The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit encourages anyone with any amount of information to contact the group at [email protected] or (603) 271-2663.

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New Hampshire

Former president of NH-based charity sentenced after stealing $350K

Published

20 hours ago

March 1, 2026

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Former president of NH-based charity sentenced after stealing 0K

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New Hampshire

Mass. man struck by car, seriously injured on I-93 in Londonderry, NH

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

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Mass. man struck by car, seriously injured on I-93 in Londonderry, NH

A Massachusetts man was flown to the hospital after he was struck by a car when he stepped out of his vehicle in the breakdown lane of Interstate 93 in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on Saturday morning.

State police say 40-year-old Felix Matos Medina, of Lawrence, had stopped on the right side of I-93 south at Exit 5 just before 11 a.m. to investigate a possible mechanical issue. He was struck shortly after he stepped out of his vehicle by a Chevrolet Malibu and sustained serious injuries.

Medina was taken by medical helicopter to Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass., police said. There was no immediate update on his condition.

I-93 southbound was closed near Exit 5 for about 30 minutes to facilitate the medical helicopter’s landing. One lane remained closed for several hours to accommodate crash reconstruction and on-scene investigation.

The driver who struck Medina, identified as David Jodoin, stopped at the scene and is cooperating with investigators, according to police. No charges have been filed at this time, but all aspects of the crash remain under investigation at this time.

Anyone with information that may assist the investigation is asked to contact Trooper Evan Puopolo at 603-451-9784.

State police are also reminding all New Hampshire drivers that Sherrill’s Law requires motorists approaching a stopped vehicle displaying warning signals to slow down and give plenty of space. Drivers are also required to move out of partially or wholly blocked lanes when it’s safe to do so.

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