Art & Science at the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve

The Long Now Foundation welcomes

Anne Heggli, Jonathon Keats, & Adam Csank

Art & Science at the Long Now Bristlecone Preserve

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Doors at 6:30pm, Talk starts at 7:30pm

For the first time in over a decade of research, Long Now Research Fellow Anne Heggli will present her synthesis of high-resolution climate data collected using paradigm-shifting long science principles at Long Now's Nevada Bristlecone Preserve in the Great Basin.

Since 02012, Heggli’s team has monitored an eight-station transect running from the floor of Spring Valley, up through Nevada's subalpine zone, and back down into Snake Valley. Among the bristlecone pines, the Nevada Climate-ecohydrological Assessment Network (NevCAN) collects data every 10 minutes, around the clock. It records the environmental ingredients that trees use to grow, ring by ring — from temperature and precipitation to soil moisture. In a way, this data can be used as a recipe book to grow a bristlecone. In this talk, Anne Heggli will introduce NevCAN and unearth the value of high-resolution environmental monitoring taking place in the Snake Range of the Great Basin.

The evening will also feature Elders of Time, a documentary following the installation of Centuries of the Bristlecone, a multi-millennial artwork by Jonathon Keats commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art in partnership with The Long Now Foundation. The piece has two components: a monumental arboreal clock and a land art installation sited at Long Now’s Nevada Bristlecone Preserve. Jonathon Keats will join us to discuss “bristlecone time,” his tree-calibrated temporal standard, and how it exposes the limitations of Universal Standard Time. 

Adam Csank, paleoclimatologist and dendrochronologist, will present the science behind bristlecone time, introducing his new long-term studies of bristlecone growth rates at the Preserve in support of Centuries of the Bristlecone.

Why This Talk Matters Now

There has been very little long-term multi-decadal work studying bristlecone regeneration until now. The Great Basin is a region with high climate variability both interannually and interdecadally. As the long science is drawn out, bristlecones have lessons to teach us about resilience and adaptation over vast timescales.

The Long View

“Long science” is research designed to unfold across decades, centuries, and beyond. Long Now is committed to advancing this type of study, which we believe is integral for meaningfully stewarding our planet. Long science requires patience, continuity, and the ability to think beyond a single human lifespan, qualities that bristlecone pines themselves inspire.

Learn More

• READ Anne Heggli’s Long Science in the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve in Long Now Ideas
• READ the interview with Great Basin scientist Scotty Strachan
• LEARN more about the Great Basin Mountain Observatory for Long Science
• WATCH the preview for Elders of Time