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The PA-NJ Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation ( TACF ) has approximately 100 nurseries across the two states . At a chestnut plantation located on the campus of Penn State , the oldest surviving tree is nearly two decades old and bears the scars of its battle with the blight . It is a fifth-generation product of TACF ’ s breeding program . |
deadly fungus — onto American chestnut rootstock . When these plants flower , nursery staff cross them to one another to develop pure American chestnuts — not hybrids — that have resistance to the virus .
Some believe the species will survive
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without human intervention |
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. They cite |
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them into flour . European settlers |
chestnut . The resulting seeds are |
evidence that pollen pulled from |
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roasted them or ate them raw , and |
then planted and tended until the |
lake sediment shows that hemlock |
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also fed them to their livestock . And |
hybrid seedlings flower and can be |
trees vanished from North Ameri- |
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the nuts were the primary food for |
crossed again . After 30 years and |
can forests some 5,000 years ago , |
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wildlife such bear , deer , elk , squir- |
tens-of-thousands of hand-pollinat- |
only to spontaneously reappear a |
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rel , turkey , and birds including the |
ed chestnut trees , researchers have |
few centuries later . Might the same |
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now-extinct Passenger Pigeon . |
developed a hybrid with enough |
happen with American chestnuts ? |
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The tree ’ s many attributes |
of the Chinese chestnut ’ s natural |
“ The rescue and restoration of |
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justify the decades-long efforts by |
blight resistance to survive but also |
American chestnut stands as one |
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researchers and amateur enthu- |
with a form , growth rate , and wood |
of the most difficult , prolonged , and |
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siasts to restore the species to |
quality that are indistinguishable |
complex single-species conserva- |
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eastern forests . In fact , the US |
from a pure American chestnut . |
tion tasks ever attempted ,” said Kim |
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Department of Agriculture began a |
Ironically , the trees on which the |
Steiner , professor of forest biology |
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chestnut breeding program as early |
virus hitchhiked to North America |
at Penn State College of Agricultur- |
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this page and far right : The American Chestnut Foundation , near right : Tim Burris , map : Holly Harper |
as 1930 , two decades before the species was considered “ effectively extinct .” Unfortunately , it was unsuccessful .
The American Chestnut Foundation ( TACF ) was established in in 1983 with the goal of developing a tree that had all the desired traits of an American chestnut but could resist the deadly fungus . Disease resistance was key since the chestnut blight persists in the environment , spread by splashing rain , wind , and insects .
TACF ’ s program hinges on the science of backcrossing . Plant scientists began by crossing a Chinese chestnut , which is resistant to the fungus , with an American
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may be key to saving the American chestnut .
An alternate realm of research has come from the State University of New York ’ s College of Environmental Science and Forestry , where scientists have focused on genetic modification . Trials have been promising — and controversial . The research has been done in collaboration with TACF , but some of its members resigned after it was revealed that the project had received support from global genetic giants Monsanto and ArborGen .
Yet another approach involves grafting tissue from the very few old survivors — American chestnuts that have somehow resisted the
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al Sciences and director of the University ’ s arboretum . “ However , nine decades after chestnut breeding work began , the reality of a solution is now less a matter of time and conjecture than has ever been the case before .”
But are our modern-day forests able to support a chestnut comeback ?
After so many decades of research to develop the perfect tree for reintroduction , experts are now evaluating which conditions will be necessary for that perfect tree to regenerate on a landscape scale . The USDA Forest Service has launched four studies to evaluate the following :
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