View Full Version : News article on the Chestnut Tree
From a recent edition of the Knoxville newspaper:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/23/new-chestnut-trees-may-reclaim-forests/
SGT Rock
02-23-2009, 20:49
Saw that.
This is GREAT news! Score one for Research and dedicated work by many.
Bald Eagles are coming back to the Philadelphia region and others areas to DDT ban and enough time to recover from that debacle.........on the right track there too. Saw one a few weeks ago on a hike, pretty nice way to begin my Sunday morning.
That's great news--chestnuts grow fast, so we might be able to see the trees coming back in our lifetimes.
Of course, you can still see loads of chestnut trees right on the AT. They're mainly just small sprouts from the trunks of trees that died off years ago, but they're out there.
Exciting! Wouldn't that be something to see chestnuts in the Appalachians?
I'd love to get a blight-resistant chestnut or two to plant in my yard.
generoll
02-23-2009, 23:19
There had been some discussion of planting a memorial tree somewhere on Blood Mountain. Is it time to put out seedlings now?
I would like to see Chestnuts, even though these are hybids which are not 100% American Chestnuts, inhabitating the Appalacians again. Oaks, maples, yellow poplar(tulip trees), hickory, beech, sourwood, Carolina Silverbells, magnolias, dogwoods, serviceberry, and CHESTNUTS!
CHESTNUTS!
I saw that.:rolleyes::D
Leon Smith
02-27-2009, 21:07
In Michaux State Forest (Pennsylvania) where the AT crosses Middle Ridge Road, a twenty-five foot American Chestnut is growing. I appears to be healthy, but an expert arborist might have a different opinion.
Ramble~On
02-28-2009, 05:48
:-? I'd really like to be able to walk beneath a stand of these trees...even though they wouldn't be the wild, native chestnuts trees that once were.
Science is a great thing and hopefully other species can be helped.
In Michaux State Forest (Pennsylvania) where the AT crosses Middle Ridge Road, a twenty-five foot American Chestnut is growing. I appears to be healthy, but an expert arborist might have a different opinion.
In many areas of the AT south of NH I have seen ancient American Chestnut stumps with shoots growing out of them, most only around 12 ft. high. Just enough to keep the root system alive. If you look for them you'll find them.
Good comments from newspaper readers in the link above. Hybridizing for reintroduction is not natural, but is a nice romantic idea. I wonder how many native species the hybridized chestnuts will crowd out.:-?
Tipi Walter
03-02-2009, 11:03
Exciting! Wouldn't that be something to see chestnuts in the Appalachians?
I'd love to get a blight-resistant chestnut or two to plant in my yard.
There are still a few mature chestnuts here and there. I go to a place that has several. Dr. Hill Craddock in Chattanooga is helping to research these mature trees in various areas around TN and NC.
Fotogs:
Dr Hill Craddock
Chestnut Mountain Boys at work
Chestnut crew taking a break. Notice mature tree on left.
There are still a few mature chestnuts here and there. I go to a place that has several. Dr. Hill Craddock in Chattanooga is helping to research these mature trees in various areas around TN and NC.
Fotogs:
Dr Hill Craddock
Chestnut Mountain Boys at work
Chestnut crew taking a break. Notice mature tree on left.
I've seen an occasional chestnut tree more than a few inches in diameter. Glad to hear there are more.
Years ago (mid 70s) I visited some folks outside Nashville who lived in a house made of chestnut logs. The house had been built in the late 1800s. The logs were easily 3' x 3'. My mind was blown by thinking of the number of gigantic trees they had cut down to build a decent-sized house out of logs that big. Even more amazing to me was the vision in my mind of a forest where there were that many trees of that size. I won't live to see that in the southeastern forest, but I love to see areas where there is at least a prospect of that kind of forest coming back.
Tipi Walter
03-02-2009, 13:11
I've seen an occasional chestnut tree more than a few inches in diameter. Glad to hear there are more.
Years ago (mid 70s) I visited some folks outside Nashville who lived in a house made of chestnut logs. The house had been built in the late 1800s. The logs were easily 3' x 3'. My mind was blown by thinking of the number of gigantic trees they had cut down to build a decent-sized house out of logs that big. Even more amazing to me was the vision in my mind of a forest where there were that many trees of that size. I won't live to see that in the southeastern forest, but I love to see areas where there is at least a prospect of that kind of forest coming back.
Back in 1879 a old codger and his family moved into the Nantahala forest below Stratton Ridge(the old Horse Cove area)and lived in a giant hollow chestnut for a year before building a small cabin. It was about 10 feet high, long and huge.
Leon Smith
03-02-2009, 20:40
For information on the Chestnut Tree Blight read Vol. II of 'Hiking the Appalachian Trail' Rodale Press, 1975. On page 1212 the details are told by Charles Konopa. It's a hard story about the American Chestnut, with no natural immunity, exposed to the deadly spores.
In Cook Forest Pennsylvania the tall, dead, limbless trunks of chestnuts have the look of columns from a Greek temple. Much like the ruins of the Grecian Empire they are a reminder of by-gone glory.