No Profanity *** No Flaming *** No Advertising *** No Anti Trappers ***NO POLITICS
No Non-Target Catches *** No Links to Anti-trapping Sites *** No Avoiding Profanity Filter
I have always had a great fascination with the American Chestnut trees, ever since when I was a small boy my great uncle and grandfather told me about how larger they were. I never saw a grown one as they were all pretty well gone before I was born. Then one day I was squirrel hunting in a new area and came across some old stumps. I could lay down on the stumps and at 5'10" it was about 3 or 4 feet wider than I was tall.
My grandfather and uncle told about one near where they lived t 7 men holding hands couldn't reach around it. When the nuts were ripe you could sit under that tree and shoot 25 or 30 squirrels out it. They said you had to use a rifle because they couldn't knock them out of the top of tree with a shotgun.
Here is a couple of old-time photos that are supposed to be American chestnut trees. They accompanied an article about the trees, so I would guess they were American Chestnut trees. I knew an old guy that had a barn full of wormy chestnut boards. They were 12 to 18 feet in length and some of them were 24 inches wide. I asked him, since the trees were so wider than that why he didn't have them wider? He said because no one around at the time had a saw that could cut anything wider.
Garry-
“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”
Have been trapping 77 years…
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738113 01/21/2001:02 AM01/21/2001:02 AM
Yes but I'm more interested in the Ozark Chinquapin as that was what use to be around here. Lot of information on the site below if you haven't heard of one before.
Yeah, some of the old growth photos from about any forested region in North America are pretty mind boggling in many cases.
I think time is on the side of the American chestnut because specimens still grows but almost never achieves much size before the blight gets them but there are reports of a few specimens that have actually gotten to young adulthood or more. I suppose after enough generations of genetic selection, sooner or later a completely resistant strain will emerge, even without the help of Chinese genes. Reading the USFS snippet below, it appears its getting closer to reality...
Garry, I got to see the Morton grove of American chestnuts in 1985 before they succumbed to the blight. They were planted in Lincoln Nebraska in 1856 by Caroline Morton ((the Morton salt people) from nuts that she had brought out west from her home state of New York. I was there in the fall and just gloried in watching the squirrels jumping around up at the top of the trees knocking nuts down. I think there were about 6-7 trees and they were all over 100 ft tall.
I have one of the seedlings planted on the farm. It's about 35 ft tall now.
If you like chestnuts you will love the American chestnut. They're small but very sweet and flavorful.
My fear of moving stairs is escalating!
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738161 01/21/2004:58 AM01/21/2004:58 AM
Yes, the chestnut blight is an American tragedy . They were the most valuable hardwood trees in North America. Not only for their lumber but even more important for the mast crop they produced.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: beaverpeeler]
#6738163 01/21/2005:10 AM01/21/2005:10 AM
ya need 2 of them, they are not self pollinating. the original root stock is still sprouting here, get up to approx. 20" in diameter and succumb to the blight. RR
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738178 01/21/2006:07 AM01/21/2006:07 AM
My father-in-law has some boards he had milled from a log that came out of the Barcelona Harbor when it was dredged many years ago. They think it may have been part of the original piers from the late 1800's or early 1900's. Beautiful wood.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738187 01/21/2006:37 AM01/21/2006:37 AM
I have half a dozen of the true American chestnut trees, 2 of them are producing nuts. The big shots from the chestnut association have checked them and they are true. The cross pollinated mine with pollen from the Virginia farm and now we have a bunch of small trees growing around the area. There are a number of wild trees in the area but they seem to get the blight as they get bigger, so far mine are clean and 2 of them are 40 to 50 years old as my father dug them from under a wild one and planted them at that time. The northeast chapter of the chestnut association has been getting nuts from my tree for several years now.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: trapNH]
#6738197 01/21/2006:54 AM01/21/2006:54 AM
I ran across the biggest stump I had ever seen years ago hunting. Must have been a chestnut then I guess. Pretty neat. I would love to get back there and see if its still there. Maybe I'll ask this spring.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: trapNH]
#6738244 01/21/2008:01 AM01/21/2008:01 AM
I have half a dozen of the true American chestnut trees, 2 of them are producing nuts. The big shots from the chestnut association have checked them and they are true. The cross pollinated mine with pollen from the Virginia farm and now we have a bunch of small trees growing around the area. There are a number of wild trees in the area but they seem to get the blight as they get bigger, so far mine are clean and 2 of them are 40 to 50 years old as my father dug them from under a wild one and planted them at that time. The northeast chapter of the chestnut association has been getting nuts from my tree for several years now.
Do you sell any of the Chestnuts from your trees ? I'd love to have a couple of dozen
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738245 01/21/2008:01 AM01/21/2008:01 AM
found a pair 30 yrs ago,dropping nuts on a loggin road.died within 5 yrs.wish i had kept some of the nuts but was told the blight would kill any that grew.
did learn not to put those nuts in your shirt pocket quick--real quick
blight resistant ones will be my next ones i plant on the farm.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738251 01/21/2008:07 AM01/21/2008:07 AM
Wow, its good to hear that there are American chestnuts getting big enough to produce nuts and yet not dying. Maybe a blight-free tree will return to be a common member of the eastern landscape once more. Wouldn't it be great to see a big money bags person, such as Warren Buffet, or even the federal gov (gasp!!) throw in some serious money to be aggressive about getting a blight free tree to return to the eastern forests!! Wouldn't that be "environmental" and potentially job creating in multiple ways...?
But I guess there's no power to be gained in do such a good thing, and isn't it gaining more and more power really what's behind using big money...?
"And God said, Let us make man in our image �and let them have dominion �and all the creatures that move along the ground". Genesis 1:26
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738257 01/21/2008:13 AM01/21/2008:13 AM
The chestnut association is working on a blight resistant tree, they are being crossed with the Chinese chestnut and bck crossed so in the ent they will be 15-16th American and blight resistant.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738272 01/21/2008:29 AM01/21/2008:29 AM
One of my sons spent his summer two years ago working on an American chestnut project. He and another student went around western and central PA monitoring the health and taking measurements of the trees in stands of hopefully blight resistant chestnut that have been planted over the years. He was told that most stands are planted way of the beaten path because of problems with theft of the trees.
There is lots of chestnut in our old farmhouse even though it was built a few years before the blight killed most of the chestnut around here. A very old barn on the dairy farm I worked on as a kid and young man has one side(the side that gets the worst weather exposure)that had all of the siding replaced at some point in it's life with chestnut.
I have worked with some of the coarse grained wood. It sort of reminds me elm. It's a shame that a tree that was so valuable to wildlife is pretty much gone. Hopefully groups like the American chestnut foundation will be successful and a couple generations from now the trees with again be common in it's native range.
Re: Anyone have interest in American Chestnut trees
[Re: Actor]
#6738275 01/21/2008:30 AM01/21/2008:30 AM
There have been several photos like you posted attributed to American chestnut. When the trees are as massive as those above it is almost always redwoods that are pictured. Chestnuts grew large but from what I’ve read 8’ was the top end for diameter. Probably quite a few that were 4-6’ diameter but nothing like what is pictured.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. -Albert Einstein