Chestnut Science Update

I hate this story. First, to say the trees got a ‘new lease on life’ is a connotative misnomer and disingenuous. A new lease on life would mean that they were saved. What they really got—inevitably, I understand—is a different use in death that allowed someone to make money off their demise. That’s better than letting them rot, but it’s not a happy ending. The fact that the story is written by someone from the timber company, reflecting the point of view of a party to the situation whose motivation is monetary, just ads to the disingenuousness of this story being posted by ACF. Are you conservationists or loggers? The ‘passion for the history’ of the American chestnut time is just a contrivance to make the situation less bleak and depressing. My takeaway is that the last stand of chestnuts is gone and no replacements are arriving anytime soon. From ACF, I want content about progress in bringing chestnut trees back, not a clumsily-glossed-up summary of how someone made money on the last ones we had.

Actually… some of the American chestnut in the Forest Service Museum came from northern Indiana

I find nut bearing American chestnut trees here in the NJ Ramapo’s but when the trees reach 6to8 inches in diameter the bark peals off and the tree dies. Once it’s dead all new shoots appear at the base of the stump, the longest Ive seen nuts was 2 years in a row on a particular tree before the tree died.

I planted quite a few American Chestnut trees from chestnuts I got from our local chapter of the ACF headed up by Herb Darling. All but 2 of them died. Mostly from the blight, but some because I planted them in soil that wasn’t drained enough. The 2 that are still alive are on a hill next to Lake Ontario. They’re doing great- even seem to be crowding out the nearby maple trees.

A society grows even more greater when old men plant American Chestnut Trees specifically in whose shade they shall never sit.

Only a fool would sit under a Chestnut tree now until December