Natural Lands — the magazine of Natural Lands fall/winter 2020, issue 157 | Page 28

NATURAL LANDS . FALL / WINTER 2020 13

American chestnuts . growing hope .

In 1904 , the chief gardener for the Bronx Zoo was making his rounds and noticed some of the American chestnut trees had orange speckles on their bark and withering leaves . Over the next few decades , the parasitic fungus he observed , Cryphonectria parasitica — which had hitchhiked on chestnut trees imported from East Asia — spread like wildfire across the species ’ range , from Maine to Georgia . Four billion trees disappeared within 40 years . By 1950 , the American chestnut — a species that had evolved 40 million years ago and once dominated eastern North American forests — was effectively extinct . Or was it ? Chestnut blight kills the above-ground portion of the tree , but the root system can survive to form new shoots that reach about 15 feet tall before being killed by the fungus . Some trees are able to produce nuts before they die , offering hope to scientists and chestnut enthusiasts who are determined to restore the “ sequoia of the East .”
In fact , science has brought us tantalizingly close to a blight-resistant version of the American chestnut . But are our Eastern forests — which have changed so much in the 100 years — able to support the species ’ return ? c . 1910
It ’ s hard to overstate the economic ,
flooring , and caskets . Timbermen
a sea with white combers plowing
cultural , and ecological importance
prized the trees for their ability to be
across its surface ,” according to
the American chestnut once had .
cut and re-sprout . J . Russell Smith , a
naturalist Donald Culross Peattie .
The trees grew fast , straight , and strong , often reaching heights of more than 100 feet . Their wood was rot resistant and straight-grained , making it suitable for framing , furniture , railroad ties , barrels , fencing ,
well-known explorer and geographer once said , “ By the time a white oak acorn grows a baseball bat , a chestnut stump grows a railroad tie .”
The profusion of flowers from June-blooming chestnuts was “ like
Honeybees and other pollinators sought out the blossoms .
Chestnuts produced an abundance of extremely nutritious nuts — as many as 6,000 from a single tree . Native peoples ground
courtesy of the Forest History Society