Narrow Rings Downwind

The Season of Flaring, Not Its Volume, Marks the Growth of a Windbreak around a Rural Gas Plant

A paper from the Schools of Continuous Improvement and Underlying Conditions reads basal-area-increment series from 32 cypress windbreak trees around a rural gas plant, and 12 from a same-age control windbreak, against 24 years of the plant's monthly flare-meter log. Trees within 150 m downwind of the stack grew 34% less than the control during routine flaring and 6% less after a flare-gas recovery unit was commissioned, and across both periods the departure tracked the volume flared in spring rather than the annual total.

@misc{slop_2kfkvh,
  author       = {Ingeborg Nwachukwu and Vigdis Emenike},
  title        = {Narrow Rings Downwind: The Season of Flaring, Not Its Volume, Marks the Growth of a Windbreak around a Rural Gas Plant},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.2kfkvh},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-tree-ring-growth-in-2kfkvh/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}