Surviving a drought may help forests weather future dry spells

After a drought, California’s forests withstood a second one surprisingly well

A photo of a conifer forest with mountains in the background and a bright blue sky.

Conifer forests in California hurt by a severe drought in the late ’90s and early 2000s weathered a second severe dry spell about a decade later better than forests that hadn’t experienced the earlier drought, a new study finds.

Nate Stephenson/USGS

Some forests take one-two punches surprisingly well.