The American Chestnut

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

All right, so my last post about global warming sounded a bit cranky. Well if the truth be told the whole discussion has me a bit irritated.

I like practical solutions to problems rather than knee jerk reactions. Here is a case in point.

There is a beautiful tree called the American Chestnut that is endangered and has been since the 1950’s.

This tree, once called “The Redwood of the East” produces an edible nut and was once the most common tree species in the Eastern United States.

Although Nova Scotia is out of its natural range we do have a handful of these magnificent trees.

Speculation is that when the United Empire Loyalists emigrated here after the American War of Independence they brought the seeds of the American Chestnut with them. You can see from the picture that these trees are big, capable of growing to well over one hundred feet tall with trunks ten feet around.

The lumber is light and strong with a lovely straight grain. It was used to make everything from shingles to furniture.

 Because of the amount of tannic acid in the wood it was especially useful for outdoor applications like making telephone poles.

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

We have all heard the song lyric, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” well these are the nuts they are talking about. The nuts fed not only people but woodland creatures such as bears, deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds and more counted on their bounty as well.

In the late 1800’s chestnut trees from Asia were imported into North America. I’m not sure why, probably for ornamental reasons. In 1904 a fungus was found to be killing American Chestnut trees in New York. By 1950, about three and a half billion American Chestnut trees were dead. That’s 90 per cent of the species –gone.

Late in the 1980’s a group called The American Chestnut Foundation began working on a way to bring these trees back. They cross bred seed from the survivors with fungus resistant seed from China and then bred the fungus resistant hybrids with pure American Chestnuts.

 By this backcrossing they now have a tree which is a fungus resistant American Chestnut. Well, to be precise I guess its 94% American Chestnut and 6% Chinese Chestnut but still what an amazing accomplishment.

I admire the folks who did this work. Others may have spent their energy pushing for a ban on all ornamental trees or feeding the squirrels displaced by the lack of nuts, I should specify edible nuts when discussing possible reactions.

These folks at The American Chestnut Foundation thought the problem through, decided on a practical and more importantly possible solution, and then quietly set about the work.

They have saved a species. Because of their quiet dedication we, or our children, will someday see the restoration of the natural forests of North America.

They are the sort of folks I'd like to hear more from on issues such as climate change.