News Environment Surviving a drought may help forests weather future dry spells After a drought, California’s forests withstood a second one surprisingly well 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 Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Katherine Kornei June 9, 2023 at 9:00 am Some forests take one-two punches surprisingly well.