Wash. Post: Bringing back the American chestnut – with genes imported from…CHINA! Call it eco-outsourcing?
How’s this for a happy ending? “…some envision huge tracts of strip-mined Appalachia one day being restored with lovely chestnut forests.” That crops up, after being typed one suspects with tongue a little bit in cheek, by the Washington Post‘s sterling enviro writer Juliet Eilperin. The story ran Monday. It takes readers into the past when stately chestnut trees were lords of many eastern US forests, reminds them of the exotic blight that has rendered them functionally extinct, and now-rising hope that a new hybrid will restore chestnuts as dominant and grand members of the eastern hardwood landscape. They not only looked handsome, but their huge crops of nuts supported wildlife, fed a lot farmers’ hogs and other livestock through the winter, and made for a pretty good cash crop on the side.
She gets into Thoreau, and obsession among chestnut revivalists. But, she warns, while thousands of the new versions are growing in wildlands and gardens alike, it will take a century or more before they retake their natural place. The general topic gets a revisit now and then by reporters. This is a particularly good one.
Who knows? Maybe the chestnut timber industry will revive too. They say it made terrific construction lumber. And maybe the ones being planted on the remains of coal fields really will grow tall, straight, and magnificent.
Other Chestnut Stories:
- WBOY News (W. Va) Jeff Schrock: Rowlesburg Celebrates Chestnut Festival ; Roasting them over open fires, even.
Grist for the Mill:
US Forest Service, Compass Magazine – Meghan Jordan: The American Chestnut: A Legacy to Come ;
- Charlie Petit
October 20th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
wow,the trees in the photo are so big and high,I hope The great American Chestnut Tree will be back alive and well in near feature.
November 9th, 2010 at 6:13 am
I would love to see huge chestnut trees growing here. I have seen the wood, some is still around (mostly “wormy chestnut”). I have seen some beautiful furniture and cabinets made from it. About twenty years ago, I found an American Chestnut sapling growing from a thick root on some property near where I lived. I tried treating it annually with a fungicide, and it grew to about ten feet before I moved away. This would be a much better solution to restore this excellent hardwood.