Dalton State College is the home to 10 new American chestnut trees after volunteers planted them along College Drive last week.
For several years, employees at Dalton State have been involved in efforts to reintroduce a blight-resistant American chestnut tree to the area. The American chestnut was once an important resource for people in Appalachian regions — giving them food and rot-resistant lumber. But after a blight nearly wiped out the species, scientists have been working to cross-pollinate the American chestnut with the Chinese chestnut in order to reintroduce it to its native region.
“The trees we planted were donated by The American Chestnut Foundation to Dalton State,” said Rodney Bailey, a library assistant at Dalton State who helps with the efforts. “They were grown by Dr. Hill Craddock of UTC (the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga). These are known as B3F3 trees. They are produced by crossing the American chestnut with the Chinese chestnut. This is followed by back crossing with American chestnut for several generations. These represent the final step in breeding chestnut blight resistance into a tree that strongly resembles the native American chestnut with very few characteristics of the Chinese chestnut.”
A tree planted next to Memorial Hall several years ago was given in honor of the late Mary Belle Price. A memorial plaque will be moved from the tree near Memorial to the new grouping of American chestnuts, Bailey said.
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