Blight-Resistant Trees Key To American Chestnut Restoration
More than 50 years after it was nearly wiped out by the chestnut blight, the American chestnut tree is going to be restored to forests of the eastern United States.
The U.S. Forest Service and the nonprofit American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) will work together to introduce blight resistant American chestnut trees into the forest ecosystem of the eastern landscape. On Tuesday, representatives of the two organizations signed an agreement that establishes a framework for the restoration.
A breeding program developed by founders of the American Chestnut Foundation to create blight-resistant chestnut trees is the core of the project. It will be augmented by scientific research in an effort to restore the once dominant hardwood tree.
“This agreement with The American Chestnut Foundation is a prime example of how partnerships with nonprofits and other groups can double our efforts in restoring and preserving our nation’s forests and wildlife habitat,” said Dale Bosworth, chief of the Forest Service.
“One of the greatest benefits of restoring the American chestnut will be a food source to wildlife because of its capacity for large and plentiful nut production,” said Bosworth, a second generation forester.
Chestnut, nicknamed the “redwood of the East,” is a very fast-growing hardwood. Naturally resistant to rot, it is an environmentally friendly alternative to pressure treated wood and can be used to fit the demand for fencing, landscape timbers and utility poles.
“The loss of these trees is considered by some measures to be among the greatest environmental disasters to befall the Western Hemisphere since the last Ice Age,” said Marshal Case, president and chief executive officer of the American Chestnut Foundation, a 5,000 member organization based in Bennington, Vermont.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the American chestnut comprised up to one-quarter of the total stand in its range, from Maine to Georgia, from the Piedmont to the Ohio Valley and into the Great Lakes region.
First discovered in 1904 in New York City, the blight spread quickly, killing billions of trees. The blight was caused by a fungus accidentally imported on Asian chestnut trees to which native chestnuts had little resistance.
By 1950, the keystone species which had covered some nine million acres of eastern forests was nearly gone.
“Restoration of this keystone species,” said Case, “will greatly benefit both local economies and the ecosystem in the eastern United States.”
Provided by the Environmental News Service.
