A good watch.

Thanks for sharing that.

Worth watching. Thanks.

I wish I had been alive when the chestnut tree was the predominant tree in the forest From Maine to Georgia chestnut tree was more numerous than all other species combined . Because it was so light in weight but very strong and grew very straight it was the wood of choice to use to build As the settlers slowly inhabited the land and moving west they had plenty of chestnut trees to use to build their barns, houses, and many other building they needed And it produced a heavy crop of nuts most years Deer turkey bear squirrel an other animals preferred it as their favorite food . It is another sad story how nature was affected by mankind

Thanks for posting; amazing photos - no sissies on that workforce!

Those same root systems from the early 1900's are still sprouting, I know a guy who works for the forest service, he told me the sprouts get up to around 4-6" in diameter and most die, but he has one tree that he keeps tabs on, its 24"+ in diameter, suffering a bit frrom the blight but its still alive, he is hoping the american chestnut is slowly developing natural resistance to the blight. There is a competing organism in the ground that will kill the blight if it gooes below the surface so the blight cannot kill the roots.

American chestnuts were the main food source for passenger pigeons, which is why they died out.

Keith

The American Chestnut Society is in Asheville, NC. A friend sent me a cutting he found and I took it to them to be identified. Our cutting was from an old isolated tree in eastern NC. Turns out it was of the Chinese variety, thus immune to the blight.

The American Chestnut Society is the organization crossbreeding the Amer Chestnut with Chinese Chestnuts in an attempt to produce a variety with Amer Chestnut characteristics and Chinese Chestnut resistance to the blight. They are located 5 miles from my house. https://acf.org/about-us/meadowview-research-farm/

There is a new development in the breeding of Am chestnut. Geneticist have an Am chestnut with a . blight resistant gene from wheat.
So far the new trees are proving very resistant to the blight. USDA has not released the tree for general plantings. They want to be sure
there are no adverse enviromental effects.

The American Chestnut Foundation is based in Asheville, North Carolina with five regional offices located throughout the Appalachian region.

National Office
50 North Merrimon Avenue, Suite 115
Asheville, NC 28804
PH: (828) 281-0047
FAX: (828) 253-5373
EMAIL: chestnut@acf.org

not true, Passenger pigeons were gone before the blight was introduced into America.

Over shooting is what eliminated the passenger pigeon.

I watched about , they now have a hybrid. It's bred with a Chinese chestnut to make it blight resistant. Then they bred it back to the American chestnut , it has the same leaf, bark and nut configuration .

Chestnuts seedlings are now only 1/16 Chinese, yet have blight resistance.

That's awesome news. Over the years, they seem to be getting bigger before they blight. I remember, over 50 years ago, my father hitting the brakes on his truck and jumping out and showing me a chestnut tree that was bearing nuts. He sure was excited. He was a forestry graduate but hadn't ever seen one that was bearing nuts.

This is interesting because I just talked to our DNR Forester about chestnuts Tuesday. He said Chinese chestnuts have a better chance of being blight resistant than the Dunston. I have some of each on my property. Next year I'm hoping to find a source for some more bare root Chinese Chestnut. Deer will walk past acorns to get to Chestnuts

Just from online reading there seems to be much debate and several differing camps in the effort to save the American Chestnut.

While all would love to see the original tree return in pure form to it's former glory there is quite the debate in just how to beat the blight.

Crossbreeding to acquire resistance then backcrossing to pure stock
Breeding from genetic pure resistant stock
Gene splicing/GMO

As you can imagine the three options each have pros and cons and some resulting contention.

My Grandpa told me he and his brothers would go out and pick up chestnuts. Their Dad had a wagon they would fill with gunny sacks full of chestnuts and they would drive to Harrisburg and sell or trade for things. Thanksgiving was not the same day it is now and they would always get enough to come home and have their Thanksgiving dinner form what they traded for. They also fed them to their horses and pigs. They roasted and ate them plus they ate them raw. He was born in 1885. What a great food source that was lost. There are a couple American chestnut trees hear I get nuts off of each year. They taste sweeter than the Chinese nuts.

I have a few Dunstins and others. Not one seems to grow worth a hoot here.

I must be a might privileged in this department. My best friend growing up had a large chestnut tree in his yard. We would eat them every year. I prefer them raw.