ACCF field trial of blight-resistant American chestnut, 100% genetically Castanea dentata. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons - jaknouse)

Before chestnut blight was introduced on imported Asiatic chestnut trees, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), native to eastern North America, was one of the most common -- and most important -- trees throughout its range.

A large tree, it reached almost 100 feet tall and was about 10 feet in diameter. It ranged from Maine to Mississippi, and made up a quarter of the trees in the Appalachian mountains!

As the American Chestnut Foundation says, "In those thousands of years preceding the blight's arrival, an enormously complex set of relationships evolved which tied the chestnut to innumerable bird, mammal, and insect species and other organisms, as well as to rocks, water, soils and fires. Essentially, chestnut was tied to the very shape of the hills and mountains on which the trees were found."  

The blight destroyed billions of chestnut trees in the first half of the twentieth century. Since then, a variety of efforts to restore the chestnut have been underway.

Some of the methods being explored:

The American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation (www.accf-online.org/) is using only pure American chestnut genetic stock to create blight-resistant trees, along with biological control measures in the forest environment.

The American Chestnut Foundation (www.acf.org) is introducing into the American chestnut the genetic material responsible for the blight resistance of the Chinese tree, and at the same time, preserving in every other way the genetic heritage of the American species.   

The Northern Nut Growers Association has been pursuing hybrids with Chinese varieties.

SUNY-ESF's American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project (www.esf.edu/chestnut/) is creating trees that are genetically modified to resist the fungus, and could be the first GM forest trees released in the wild in the US. (Note free lecture in the left sidebar.) 

More than chestnuts 

The success of these strategies could have important implications for other native trees in trouble, such as the American elm (afflicted by Dutch elm disease), the hemlock (afflicted by the wooly adelgid), and now our ash trees (afflicted by the emerald ash borer).    

Photo: Wikimedia Commons by Peatcher

... I still hold out hope -- buoyed by the fierce tenacity of millions of resprouting chestnut roots -- that somehow, someday, this majestic tree can beat the disease and take its former place in our forests. I hope I live to see that -- nothing could make me happier."

One of our members, Estelle Hahn, has invented an almost invisible deer-resistant fencing system that protects young plants until they're established.  

She installed 6' tall thin green plastic stakes at the edge of the planting bed every 10' or so. She then attached a series of three 24-gauge steel galvanized wires at the ends of the beds, wrapping them around the stakes in between.

Estelle notes that deer can easily jump a 6' fence, but there are two good reasons why they won't do it with this system in this location:  

1) they probably can't see the wires and don't know what or where they are, and  

2) the beds are too close to the house for them to consider jumping in that direction.  

It has worked for her, and if you have similar situation, it might work for you, too!