TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Volunteers Help Revive Chestnuts

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICK CALLAHAN, The Associated Press

Published: November 23, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS - Growing up in the 1920s, Bill Lord remembers feasting on the sweet, rich nuts of American chestnut trees - the majestic species that a fungus would soon all but wipe out.

More than a half-century after the prolific nut-producer became little more than the stuff of holiday songs, Lord is now part of a far-flung network of volunteers working to return the so-called "Redwood of the East" to the forests it once dominated.

The American Chestnut Foundation oversees a tree-breeding program with chapters in 15 Eastern states and is closing in on blight-resistant American chestnut trees it hopes could revive the species.

Unless a new biological invader intervenes, the Bennington, Vt.-based group hopes to begin mass replantings in about a decade in the chestnut's original range from Maine to Mississippi.

Lord, an 86-year-old retired veterinarian from Plum, Pa., said reviving the tree would be a boon not just to people - for its handsome, highly rot-resistant lumber and tasty nuts - but to a wide range of animals.
American chestnuts can grow to 120 feet. One tree in North Carolina had a trunk diameter of 17 1/2 feet.

The fungus that attacked the American chestnut likely arrived on imported Asian chestnut trees. It first was detected in 1904 in trees in New York City, and by 1950 some 3.5 billion trees - about 90 percent of the species - had died.

The American Chestnut Foundation began a tree-breeding campaign in the late 1980s in a quest for trees that could ward off the fungus.
Marshal Case, the American Chestnut Foundation's president and chief executive, said the program has produced trees with 94 percent American chestnut DNA, and 6 percent of the Chinese tree's genes. Those trees are now being bred to select the ones with the highest resistance to the fungus. Each state chapter is producing versions best suited for its region.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT