The Terrible Plight of the Chestnut Blight
All it took was one generation and an entire culture shifted. One generation of an imported fungus to spread like wild-fire. One generation of people born after it’s demise for it to be nearly forgotten. And now, one generation at a time, to help bring them back.
Not long ago it would have been common for the townsfolk to gather in the forest and go “chestnutting“, stocking their winter larders with the starchy nuts, fattening hogs under them and cutting one of the most rot resistant woods this world has ever known to build early America’s homesteads, barns and railroads. Today, it is but a footnote in ecological history, with the average person unaware of the existence of such a tree, let alone the all encompassing presence it had on the lives of our recent relatives.
Referred to as the “Redwood of the East“ for it’s immense size, it was the dominant tree in eastern America for eons. It was said that settlers were in contact with American chestnut from baby’s cradle to dead man’s coffin, and every day in between. Unlike many other tree nuts which crop erratically, the chestnut dropped a dependable annual crop of nuts that constituted a staple carbohydrate for humans, livestock and wild animals alike. If ever there was a tree that seemed would stand the test of time, sheltering us under it’s branches, it was the grand American chestnut. Then….it only took about 50 years to declare it functionally extinct.
In 1904, the fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) was first reported in New York. Giant chestnut trees started losing their verdant green raiment of leaves, replaced with ghostly bare branches. Mammoth trunks, centuries in the making, were stripped of their bark and left standing stark naked in a forest of it’s dead comrades. A massive forest that stretched from Maine to Georgia lost it’s champion….upwards of 4 billion chestnut trees. To the people who lived through it, it was a monumental change. Gone were memories of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Gone too was the lumber that built the country. All that were left were stories and memories. The once mighty ‘“Redwood of the East“ was reduced to a weak, suckering shrub, eke-ing out an existence on the forest floor…….but all was not lost.
Through the years people have been captivated by the American chestnut and great strides have been made in keeping it’s genetics alive. Breeders have used the naturally resistant Chinese and Japanese chestnuts to cross pollinate with the American, thereby conferring their resistance to the blight. By allowing these trees to mingle and pollinate each other, we can select the best characteristics to keep a great lineage of chestnuts alive. The forests of America can be covered with chestnuts once again! All it takes is our hands to put them in the soil. The more of us that take an active part in planting and nurturing chestnuts the better. Think of the forests we could have if each of us planted even just one tree in our lifetime!
While it is easy to dwell on what has been lost, that approach will lead to no progress. I see a future that looks brighter than it has in awhile for the chestnut. The time is right, the trees are there, the soil is waiting and the sun keeps shining. Me and my fellow “nuts“ are going to keep planting these trees….will you join us?!?