I have three healthy American chestnut trees on my 5 acres. The largest is 97 inches around. 100 to 150 years old. I got 4000 seeds this fall 2024. Alto, Michigan.
There's another chestnut, reputed to be the nation's largest, at Prudential Nursery in Vicksburg, MI. I've read that for some reason that small corner of southwest Michigan is relatively protective of American Chestnuts, hence this one's remaining alive. It was hit by lightning maybe 15 or so years ago but has managed to survive. But what a beautiful tree, worthy of a visit, Another curious variety of serious size to see in Vicksburg the next time you're there is a stand alone Ginko biloba located right behind the downtown grocery store.
It’s so heartbreaking to think about the decline of the American chestnut tree. Once a giant of the forest, providing food and shelter for so many species, and now it’s almost completely gone due to blight. I hope efforts to restore it succeed-it would be amazing to see these majestic trees thrive again someday.
When I lived on Seventh Street in West End Radford we had several Chestnut trees there. I think a few of them are still left. My grandfather owned some land on the Pearisburg side of Cloyds Mountain. There were a bunch on that land, but I bet they are all gone now.
A while back I pulled the timbers out of an abandoned house and realized some of it was Chestnut. Once I got past the surface rot, the rest of it was sound. The nails had rusted away but the wood was good. So easy to work, much better than oak, smelled good, tasted good, finished out so beautifully. Strong and lightweight. The best wood ever.
Frank it's amazing how little some people see in the forest. This was awsome that you show this to those who didn't know. And tell them about the work being done to bring back the chestnut trees back. It's for the future generations. I work with this group through the Pennsylvania game commission. There is alot of good folks working very hard to get them back. It's going to take atlest another 100 years to see what's being done today. Jeff God bless
They were still around in the nineteen sixties I remember a stand of very large and tall chestnut trees across the road from where I lived. As a kid we would collect the nuts and make bolows from them. What I remember even more clearly was the loss of all of the elm trees
Hi Frank. This is an awsome video. We see this alot on our game lands. There is hope. The game commission is working with the chestnut organization to hybridization the American and Chinese chestnut. We get a few to replant almost every year. And GPS the areas we plant them. . We have a couple trees that are about 1 foot Dia trunks that they are using to cross pollinate. They actually made a lot of nuts this fall.. we will not be able to see the good work to bring back the chestnut to the east, but there is hope. God bless teacher. Your buddy Pennsylvania Jeff
They are not pure there are pure chestnuts growing and show resistants from the blight nuts from them are planted hopefully they will become totally resistant
I docent at a local county house museum here in Maine, about 5 years ago or so the American Chestnut Foundation planted 5 seedlings on our property,they are doing well and taller than I am,seeing this I'm going to keep a close eye on them for sighs of fungus!
This 2024 fall hunting season we found much more chestnut growth than in years past. We were very impressed and very hopeful. On one particular ridge the chestnut foliage was pretty dense. We even shot several squirrels on that ridge but decay was evident on the larger trees. But, they were producing some nuts. Very hopeful that Mother Nature will over come and restore these trees.
Over forty years ago I bought a bicycle from a man in Harrisonburg, Va. He had a business out of his garage. I wish I could remember his name. He had presidential citations for his work on chestnut preservation. He told me all about the blight and gave me a tree to plant. A man with sincere passion. I guess he really helped in a small way because back in the 80s, the chestnuts were about gone. 😊😊😊
The sprouts you show along with the dead small tree with them looks exactly like my experience at my house in East TN. The largest one I've seen made it to about the dia. of an axe handle, maybe 10' feet tall, then it died too. I've never seen a blossom on them. Thanks for the video and for pronouncing Appalachian correctly!
Just up the road from me are 3 mature Chestnut trees behind an old furnace building. They are very tall and healthy. I wonder if the ashes from the coal furnace being dumped on their roots had anything to do with them not getting the blight.
I love Chestnuts. When I was a kid there were huge chestnut trees in my neighborhood and we’d roast chestnuts in the fireplace. I also remember venders selling small bags of hot chestnuts from street carts in NYC. Sadly those things no longer happen. I hope they come back.
Great memories...hoping for a comeback too! The European chestnut was not effect by the blight...you can still get roasted chestnuts on the streets across europe!
I backpacked/camped there about 7 years ago. I found chestnut hulls at Chimney Rock as well. A friend found a couple going up Old Rag on the same trip. There is hope.
This fall as I was walking around the woods of my rural cabin I was picking up a few Leafs and I found one like this one. I keep the unusual leafs so I laid this one with my collection! I will be back at my cabin in the spring to spend the summer. So now I’m going to search for this leaf again and try to find the tree it came from. I hope it is a chestnut tree. This would be one of my happy days! A chestnut tree,,, nice!
Frank -- There is a north-facing slope in a ravine called Kaaterskill Clove, in Greene County New York's eastern Catskills, where the sprouts from old stumps, long rotted away, are numerous, fairly large, and every year produce a crop of full-sized burrs. But the seeds inside have, on the ones I've periodically opened, been fungus-covered or something, somewhat shrivelled, and don't look fertile at all. Never tried planting any, but have sometimes over the years brought a small paper sack of burrs home because they're so neat. Prickly, though. In the mid-1800's, a popular fiction author of the time, E. P. Roe, of Newburgh, Hudson Valley, wrote a romance novel called, "Opening A Chestnut Burr," and I can see why it resonated with folks of that time. It was quite successful.
I was hiking there back in early October, just a couple of weeks before you recorded this. Observed several American Chestnut shoots along the AT in the vicinity of the Blackrock Summit trail. No burrs though!
I used to own a property in Kitsap Co WA, and had 4 large chestnuts (estimate ~70-80 ft - I could get my arms maybe halfway round the trunk) running along the driveway and they would drop 1000s of the pods. They've got very sharp spikes and could pierce a leather glove if you were unlucky - best to crush and roll with your heel to open them to get to the nuts.
Frank. If you see a larger chestnut tree. With the fungus scabs. There's some people saying that rubbing soil from the area on the scab. Can possibly helping the tree.
I am northern MI. And see lots of mature American chestnuts in pockets. But very edge of their range. Ernie Rogers was very interested in American chestnuts because chestnut blight was killing American chestnuts when he left his native Pennsylvania home and moved to Jackson, MI. When he found professor Dennis Fulbright working on American chestnuts in Michigan, Ernie offered his farm to grow the trees Fulbright was studying. It was on his farm that Ernie watched American chestnuts take root and produced their first crop of nuts. Edible sweet chestnut orchards have sprung up across Michigan. According to the Ag Census of 2007, Michigan has the largest number of growers and the most acreage of any state.
The blight does not affect the root system and the trees repeatedly coppice ( sprouting from the root stock.). it's not unusual to find 20 year old trees with the occasional chestnut on them. blooming trees in the wild provided pollen for the backcross breeding program of The American Chestnut Foundation and it usually takes me 15 minutes to find live trees on casual walk along the parkway. You just have to know what you are looking at and for.
In addition to the original root, there has probably been some new root growth over the years powered by many cycles of shoots. Its Essentially functioning now like a shrub which is pruned back every few years.
If you’ve heard of the ozark chinquapin it’s a chestnut, but a different species. Doesn’t grow quite as large, but still 60-80ft tall. The ozark chinquapin foundation has bred a blight resistant tree using only surviving trees in the wild, with no non-native hybridization. I think we ought to focus restoration efforts on that tree as it performs extremely similar ecological functions, is native, and already has blight resistance. I also think this is a better candidate for hybridization as it’s more closely related and native. I attended their annual meeting for this tree and one presenter was an American chestnut enthusiast who was testing wild trees to gauge their resistance levels and he found someone. Who grows American chestnuts who had several trees that were fully American and had comparable blight resistance to Chinese. I think that the genes for resistance are out there in the wild, but because a, we so poorly managed the disaster back when it happened, b, poorly managed the species before the blight, and c, blight wasn’t the first disease to wipe out chestnut in the us, and d, before contact there was no reason for Mother Nature to select for these genes, they are at extremely low levels. And we’re at a point now where the root systems are going to continue to die out and without regeneration we will likely lose the species. I truly hope we don’t. I have a deep love and appreciation for our native chestnuts/chinquapins!
I have 60 acres in the Clinch mountains in TN. I have 3 trees I know of that produce a few chestnuts every year but that is it. They are 30-40 ft tall and look stunted. I also wonder sometimes if they are Horse Chestnuts from the leaf pattern. But I see the small trees also. I try imagine what the land would look like with mature chestnut trees. Must have really been something.
@@natureatyourdoor I think the American Chestnut Society has located small groves of American Chestnuts that are normal and healthy but it is a big secret (on purpose). They want them left alone to flourish and they don't want people near them. I think they will come back. It will take a long time but it will happen thank goodness. If I had such a grove I would leave my land to the socierty for that reason alone.
I BOIL chestnuts to use in my cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. For many years the only ones I can find are from Italy. I used to get them in south Georgia 50+ years ago from a tree growing in the back yard of a relative in Tifton.
I still have many sprouts on my property. 30 years ago, I sent leaves and nuts to Dr. Sandy at the AG Exp Station in Hamden, CT. She said that mine were 7/8 American. Probably from experiment chestnuts that a UCONN Professor planted in the early 1900s. Some of mine have gotten to 8" diameter and 30'+ tall before sucuming to the blight. Many of my trees fight off the blight repeatedly before dying. My American Beeches now have something killing them. Good Luck, Rick
Wow! Thanks for you very interesting share. I have a single chestnut on my 18 acres...no sprouts ...a reported it to local chestnut foundation as well .please see my other chestnut videos for more info!
I know nothing, but I feel that if the American Chestnut fights so hard to live it will indeed make a comeback someday... Don't give up. Because you may very well succeed........ ❤
I also have an "addendum" if you'll allow it! I have a photo of a huge chestnut stump on our Family farm with a '23 Ford T-model parked on it. The year was 1924 I think. According to my Dad, the huge tree was struck by lightning and they cut it for lumber to build a barn. Dad said it took days to down the giant.
I didn't want to delve to deep in this video...lol..I could have talked for hours on the 3 main prongs of research and how they crossed resistant genes into the native tree genome...and now are back crossing to try to eliminate all Chinese genome from the native except for the gene test gives blight resistance...time consuming and very complex genetic manipulation with public fear of releasing genetically altered trees into the world!
@@markczarnecki7251 (I’m sorry this is so long) tbh from the research I’ve done the gmo isn’t blight resistant and there are a few contributing factors. My own thoughts are that I’m not sure if gmo trees in the forest are a good idea, but I fully admit I’m not really qualified to make that assessment. However I do think they would be perfectly acceptable to use as ornamental, orchard (although American chestnuts aren’t great orchard trees as they’re just too big), or lumber trees if they have enough resistance to keep cankers from ruining their ability to produce usable wood. Now on to the good stuff 1. When cryphonectria parasitica (aka chestnut blight) is modified to turn off the gene that produces oxalic acid it is still able to produce tree-killing cankers on American chestnuts. It is absolutely less virulent, however it can still be quite lethal. The only thing the gmo chestnut can do differently from wild American chestnuts is break down oxalic acid. 2. The gene “controller” I forget what it’s called, if I remember this correctly is still a wheat controller, and it basically has the gene on at full blast all the time, and this itself seems to have a stressing effect on the tree. There are efforts to use different genes and different controllers so that this gene is only turned on when the tree is under stress, like from the chestnut blight. 3. I personally think that there are better routes to take, if you look into the Canadian chestnut council they’re working to breed blight resistance from the less than 1000 known trees left alive in Canada. Their trees were somewhat isolated and seem to be more closely related to our southern population, than our New England population despite the obvious proximity. Our southern population is the heart of genetic diversity in the species because during the last ice age they were pushed very far south. This puts Canada in an interesting situation, because in the south of the US, in the late 1700s or early 1800s we had root rot killing chestnuts, and this disease completely kills the tree as it’s killed from the roots, so no root suckers are produced. The southern chestnuts got a double whammy. So, considering we lost more of our southern trees, and the south (and Canada) is where the most genetically diverse trees are, this might mean Canada has trees with genes that we might not have, or have very low levels of. They’re also lucky that it generally stays too cold for root rot to get a foothold there. I believe this year they’re planting their 3rd generation of pure American chestnuts that they believe have significantly higher blight tolerance than wild trees. If you’re interested in this topic I’d suggest you look up the ozark chinquapin foundation RUclips channel. This tree is a slightly smaller Native American chestnut (60-80ft tall) that this organization has bred resistance to chestnut blight by finding (literally only 46 or something like that) wild healthy trees to cross breed. These trees are hundreds of miles apart and wouldn’t have been able to breed otherwise. Their best trees exhibit BETTER blight tolerance than asiatic species. This leads me to believe that since their range overlaps, and they’re closely related, and they can cross organically in the wild that blight resistance genes do exist in American chestnut trees at extremely low levels. I could go on forever, so I’ll stop here!
I have an American Chestnut tree in my yard. Just a Stump but it sends up sprouts. They live a couple of years and then they die only to be replaced with new sprouts.
Great presentation.I have just lost all of my white ash as in the hundreds several years ago all do to an invasive insect from asia and now the spotted lantern fly has arrived this summer.Circle of life?
@ thank you for clarifying. The nut photos online look very similar to the hazelnut. I wonder if I could grow one in Kentucky? I am a wildlife rehabber and love having a variety of trees for my squirrel releases🙏
@@natureatyourdoor the American chestnut. We have many chestnut oak. And I will have to look to see what Chinese chestnut is. although I will not plant anything that is non-native. I am in Oldham county Kentucky.
Just started noticing these all over the Cumberland plateau. So tantalizing watching them grow and die making weird burls on the ground. I really hope someone cracks the code for these puppies soon. Right now all the genetic diversity is being saved by these trees in limbo.
Great video reminded me of my uncle Ray. When I was a young boy he would come to my house in Boston and take me for a ride to explore the woods. Im 78 now and was bout 10 at the time we would walk the Blue Hill reservation in Milton where there were chestnut trees full of what he called "horse chestnuts". Were these the same as American chestnut trees? Sorry for the long story but I really miss this true gentleman.
@@natureatyourdoor Extreme Fungus infestations happen in soils deficient in copper and zinc, especially true on depleted soils like Limestone based in rainy areas, and the Appalacians are an old old range, may be minerally depleted. not sure what the rock substrate is there though. Basically you could try copper and zinc filings, shouldnt take much.. Over the soil in an area they are trying to sprout in, or if planting seed from isolated from the fungus stands, which do exist. You can get soil tests at Ag University labs to get a report on how much needs applied. by the acre or hectare. would be worth researching and trying, I would avoid other chemical feritilizers. just go metallic copper and zinc and not too fine. or it wont last.
@garylester3976 interesting! Thanks for sharing your thoughts,experience and knowledge with me and viewers of the channel! Valley and ridge are limestone, shales, capped with sandstone or conglomerate...blueridge is more metamorphic with quartz and schits
And the Oaks are now fighting the Sudden Oak Death oomycete. Like the American Chestnut I think they'll hang on, but the forests will never be the same, and all of the critters that depend on the nuts will continue having a hard time. Let's hope some biological agents or pesticides are developed that can help fight these infections on a large scale.
In Northern Kentucky, we still have a few of these around, producing chestnuts. We’ve collected several over the past several years. As far as wildlife goes, I am a rehabber and curious as to which animals eat these. I know the squirrels and birds around here do not care for them.
The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was a primary food source for many species of wildlife, including: White-tailed deer: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall Wild turkey: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall Black bears: Ate the nuts to fatten up for winter Allegheny woodrat: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall Squirrels: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts Hogs: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts Raccoons: Likely benefited from chestnuts Mice: Likely benefited from chestnuts Grouse: Likely benefited from chestnuts Crows: Likely benefited from chestnuts Blue jays: Likely benefited from chestnuts
There are two chestnut trees next to my dad’s house in Westchester, New York. The largest of the two produces copious nuts in the fall. I have eaten them and they taste OK I guess the tree is about 40 feet tall. Pardon my pun, but the squirrels go nuts over these things and frequently break into the husks before they have a chance to hit the ground. I don’t know how they get into those husks because they are so sharp.
you can still see the fallen boles of Chestnut trees, a foot in diameter, in at least one place along the New England National Scenic Trail in Massachusetts. They are a distinctive red color and very rot resistant -- so there they still lie, 100 years later.
Now almost every ash tree you see in the woods is dead or dying. Really sad. In the holston river watershed i see a lot of these chestnut trees sprouting from the old stumps. They get about an inch or two in diameter before they get hit with the blight. I know where one mature chestnut tree is, and its a beauty. Not far from Emory and Henry college. We need a pure American chestnut, no hybrids!
The fungus is among us. Is there any chance scientists could dig up or somehow remove healthy sprouts and move them into a lab or some plot of land where the fungus doesn't yet exist to give the trees a chance to recover?
@@natureatyourdoor Man, that's too bad. My wife is from Switzerland, so chestnuts are a fun tradition we have around this time of year and they are getting harder and harder to find.
@PryorTravis no way...did you see my Switzerland playlist that includes the chestnut trees of Ticino Switzerland? My mom was swiss we have family house on Lake Lugano..I go for several months annually!
I know you will think I'm gaslighting. There is a least one behind my place well beyond 40 ft. There are more I believe. I can't motovate like I used to. But I will check for the flowers in the spring. Morgan county,tn.
My great grandmother as a little girl in the Pennsylvania mountains in the 1890s used to gather up the nuts with her siblings. Their mother would roast them.
It surprising that there are still some around. I live in Northeast Ohio & am aware of 3 in my city. They're all fruiting, but none of them are clearly doing well at all.
I just wonder if there might be an anti-fungal that could be sprayed on these trees. Sure, we'd like it all to be organic, but if the American chestnut could be saved in its ancient form, isn't it worth a few chemicals?
Depressing. We have hundreds of these small trees in the park down the road. Heard of another location where there might be some mature trees. I planted some that are dying one at a time. One made it to 8 inch diameter. We keep donating to the society that is supposed to get us the darling tree that never seems to get approved.
"Functionally extinct." This is because they, rarely, get to the size where they flower. And, if they do, there are no others close enough to cross pollinate from. There is hope. But, as the problem was created by people, it has to be solved by them as well. I could go into further details on two ways that can happen. But, the post would be too long. If anyone is interested, I'll drop another note. Best, JJ
Sooner or later in those woods there will be at least one tree who will grow resistant to that fungus. It probably won't be in human timelines, but it will.
knowin' what i know now, i think it's quite possible the fungus was introduced intentionally to cripple one of the greatest trees ever as it's the perfect wood.
Correct. I learned from another viewer the proper term is "functionally extinct". There are also pockets of introduced mature trees in the northwest that the blight has been geographically isolated from!
It is such a massive area to spread. The Asian tree does not have invasive characteristics like noxious Tree of Heaven. I was reading about how...if we did find a resistant native...it would take millions ? Billions of dollars to replant
I've got a joke for ya. What do ya call nuts on a wall .. wallnuts .. what do ya call nuts on your chest .. chestnuts .. what do ya call nuts on your chin ? 😮
Coppicing either by human hands or natures hand will keep a tree in a sort of juvenal state for decades or depending on the tree species for centuries. These 'naturally' coppiced trees will continue to re-sprout for years to come. Hope the TACF resistance breeding project succeeds before they all begin to finally die off.
I miss the Elms. Magnificent, even if pain in the ass pods or whatever they were that dropped from them. Giant trees, people have NO clue how stunted trees are today by comparison of what used to provide lush tunnel canopies of shade over wide streets and shaded entire houses and yards. Also, would be nice to chow down on some of those fat pigeons they hunted out of existence. Free chicken?
@@natureatyourdoor Well with the increasing CO2 I feel that many areas will see a great increase in plant life, it is said parts of Africa are already showing signs of plant life recapturing desert lands, not everything is a downside to having a more enriched atmosphere for plants. Perhaps we may see some greater efforts into plant husbandry generally such that more resistant Elm and Chesnut trees may be developed as well as a widening of cultivated crops moving away from the overly industrially "owned" versions and associated chemical sales. The future could be interesting in many good ways, especially if we learn to not live in flood plains or right on the ocean beaches, or in places prone to weather issues and subsequent recurrent disasters. I think like most things, it will be a mixed bag. Best wishes!
I had three beautiful chestnut trees on my property……there was nothing wrong with them……but the sidewalks were upheaved and destroyed so the city had to take them out and put in new sidewalk…..
I dunno, certainly we're seeing the worst deforestation of our generation. The trees now are nothing compared to what they used to be even 30 years ago. The chemtrails have killed so many millions and weakened the rest. All of my Whate Oak trees are now dead standing timber and any where the water runs you have dead trees. While the chestnut is bad, we are seeing the worst all out deforestation of any generation.
I have to admit I’m not usually moved by plant stories. I’m not really moved usually. But this tragedy simply is unbearable. I love chestnuts. That nature with engineer such a complete total devastation is simply unfathomable.
@@natureatyourdoor pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6605023/#s5 there are many species associated with a American Chestnut, along with Oak and other species that it grows with. so if re-introducing into an area, having some soil samples taken around will give you a good idea of the fungal health for the trees and if they might need a little boost when planting.
You know what? They just need to be transplanted further north due to climate change. I see fungi increasing in Maryland. Its hard to keep the native and imported fruit trees alive without sprays.
I have three healthy American chestnut trees on my 5 acres. The largest is 97 inches around. 100 to 150 years old. I got 4000 seeds this fall 2024. Alto, Michigan.
Wow! That's amazing! Pretty awesome!
I do surely wished he gave a contact # . . . ☆
There's another chestnut, reputed to be the nation's largest, at Prudential Nursery in Vicksburg, MI.
I've read that for some reason that small corner of southwest Michigan is relatively protective of American Chestnuts, hence this one's remaining alive.
It was hit by lightning maybe 15 or so years ago but has managed to survive. But what a beautiful tree, worthy of a visit,
Another curious variety of serious size to see in Vicksburg the next time you're there is a stand alone Ginko biloba located right behind the downtown grocery store.
It’s so heartbreaking to think about the decline of the American chestnut tree. Once a giant of the forest, providing food and shelter for so many species, and now it’s almost completely gone due to blight. I hope efforts to restore it succeed-it would be amazing to see these majestic trees thrive again someday.
I hope so too! They are a great tree for many reasons.
When I lived on Seventh Street in West End Radford we had several Chestnut trees there. I think a few of them are still left. My grandfather owned some land on the Pearisburg side of Cloyds Mountain. There were a bunch on that land, but I bet they are all gone now.
Actually, at the time, they cut down more than the blight. It's like the blight was the excuse to make quick money from the timber.
It’s literally everywhere…
😂blight 😂
A while back I pulled the timbers out of an abandoned house and realized some of it was Chestnut. Once I got past the surface rot, the rest of it was sound. The nails had rusted away but the wood was good. So easy to work, much better than oak, smelled good, tasted good,
finished out so beautifully. Strong and lightweight. The best wood ever.
That’s great to hear about the wood being so easy to work with! It really was the best tree that ever existed for many different reasons!
Frank it's amazing how little some people see in the forest. This was awsome that you show this to those who didn't know. And tell them about the work being done to bring back the chestnut trees back. It's for the future generations. I work with this group through the Pennsylvania game commission. There is alot of good folks working very hard to get them back. It's going to take atlest another 100 years to see what's being done today. Jeff God bless
The work that you and the Pennsylvania Game Commission are doing is so important!
They were still around in the nineteen sixties I remember a stand of very large and tall chestnut trees across the road from where I lived. As a kid we would collect the nuts and make bolows from them. What I remember even more clearly was the loss of all of the elm trees
In what state was that stand of chestnuts?
Those were probably horse chestnuts
Hi Frank. This is an awsome video. We see this alot on our game lands. There is hope. The game commission is working with the chestnut organization to hybridization the American and Chinese chestnut. We get a few to replant almost every year. And GPS the areas we plant them. . We have a couple trees that are about 1 foot Dia trunks that they are using to cross pollinate. They actually made a lot of nuts this fall.. we will not be able to see the good work to bring back the chestnut to the east, but there is hope. God bless teacher. Your buddy Pennsylvania Jeff
Thanks for sharing Jeff! I am glad to hear about the positive work being done in Pennsylvania!
cool!
They are not pure there are pure chestnuts growing and show resistants from the blight nuts from them are planted hopefully they will become totally resistant
I docent at a local county house museum here in Maine, about 5 years ago or so the American Chestnut Foundation planted 5 seedlings on our property,they are doing well and taller than I am,seeing this I'm going to keep a close eye on them for sighs of fungus!
That is awesome! So cool you can watch them grow!
This 2024 fall hunting season we found much more chestnut growth than in years past. We were very impressed and very hopeful. On one particular ridge the chestnut foliage was pretty dense. We even shot several squirrels on that ridge but decay was evident on the larger trees. But, they were producing some nuts. Very hopeful that Mother Nature will over come and restore these trees.
It’s amazing to see nature’s resilience!
Over forty years ago I bought a bicycle from a man in Harrisonburg, Va. He had a business out of his garage. I wish I could remember his name. He had presidential citations for his work on chestnut preservation. He told me all about the blight and gave me a tree to plant. A man with sincere passion. I guess he really helped in a small way because back in the 80s, the chestnuts were about gone. 😊😊😊
What a great memory!
That's fantastic. How is the tree that he gave you doing? I hope it made it.
Thank you Frank! Very interesting! 😊
You're welcome!
I love your passion for this topic. Very nice video.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The sprouts you show along with the dead small tree with them looks exactly like my experience at my house in East TN. The largest one I've seen made it to about the dia. of an axe handle, maybe 10' feet tall, then it died too. I've never seen a blossom on them. Thanks for the video and for pronouncing Appalachian correctly!
It is a fascinating and tragic story!
Just up the road from me are 3 mature Chestnut trees behind an old furnace building. They are very tall and healthy. I wonder if the ashes from the coal furnace being dumped on their roots had anything to do with them not getting the blight.
🤔 interesting ! Thanks for share! What state are you in?
I love Chestnuts. When I was a kid there were huge chestnut trees in my neighborhood and we’d roast chestnuts in the fireplace. I also remember venders selling small bags of hot chestnuts from street carts in NYC. Sadly those things no longer happen. I hope they come back.
Great memories...hoping for a comeback too! The European chestnut was not effect by the blight...you can still get roasted chestnuts on the streets across europe!
I backpacked/camped there about 7 years ago.
I found chestnut hulls at Chimney Rock as well. A friend found a couple going up Old Rag on the same trip. There is hope.
It is great to hear of those finds!
This fall as I was walking around the woods of my rural cabin I was picking up a few Leafs and I found one like this one. I keep the unusual leafs so I laid this one with my collection! I will be back at my cabin in the spring to spend the summer. So now I’m going to search for this leaf again and try to find the tree it came from. I hope it is a chestnut tree. This would be one of my happy days! A chestnut tree,,, nice!
Keep me posted! Let me know if you find it!
Frank -- There is a north-facing slope in a ravine called Kaaterskill Clove, in Greene County New York's eastern Catskills, where the sprouts from old stumps, long rotted away, are numerous, fairly large, and every year produce a crop of full-sized burrs. But the seeds inside have, on the ones I've periodically opened, been fungus-covered or something, somewhat shrivelled, and don't look fertile at all. Never tried planting any, but have sometimes over the years brought a small paper sack of burrs home because they're so neat. Prickly, though. In the mid-1800's, a popular fiction author of the time, E. P. Roe, of Newburgh, Hudson Valley, wrote a romance novel called, "Opening A Chestnut Burr," and I can see why it resonated with folks of that time. It was quite successful.
Thanks for the interesting story! That's amazing that these are still producing nuts!
Thanks so much...!! Fall, to many of us, is the best time of year...sad that these trees can only barely get their heads above the ground.!!
Yes, it's heartbreaking to see how they struggle, but each sprout is a sign of hope.
I was hiking there back in early October, just a couple of weeks before you recorded this. Observed several American Chestnut shoots along the AT in the vicinity of the Blackrock Summit trail. No burrs though!
We might have seen each other!
I love stories of perseverance! There is hope! 🙂
Agreed on both counts!
I used to own a property in Kitsap Co WA, and had 4 large chestnuts (estimate ~70-80 ft - I could get my arms maybe halfway round the trunk) running along the driveway and they would drop 1000s of the pods. They've got very sharp spikes and could pierce a leather glove if you were unlucky - best to crush and roll with your heel to open them to get to the nuts.
@@mikegreene1408 amazing that those transplants are still isolated by geographic limits from the blight.
Frank. If you see a larger chestnut tree. With the fungus scabs. There's some people saying that rubbing soil from the area on the scab. Can possibly helping the tree.
I think that is true...piling soil up around the trunk helps. The fungus can't survive below the soil surface!
I am northern MI. And see lots of mature American chestnuts in pockets. But very edge of their range. Ernie Rogers was very interested in American chestnuts because chestnut blight was killing American chestnuts when he left his native Pennsylvania home and moved to Jackson, MI. When he found professor Dennis Fulbright working on American chestnuts in Michigan, Ernie offered his farm to grow the trees Fulbright was studying. It was on his farm that Ernie watched American chestnuts take root and produced their first crop of nuts. Edible sweet chestnut orchards have sprung up across Michigan. According to the Ag Census of 2007, Michigan has the largest number of growers and the most acreage of any state.
All those orchards are other varieties, not American chestnut.
Yes...fascinating about these pockets of trees...geographically isolated by the blight! Absolutely fascinating!
That is incredible and very close to me. Love to see it develop a resistance.
I agree! It's definitely something to be hopeful for!
The blight does not affect the root system and the trees repeatedly coppice ( sprouting from the root stock.). it's not unusual to find 20 year old trees with the occasional chestnut on them. blooming trees in the wild provided pollen for the backcross breeding program of The American Chestnut Foundation and it usually takes me 15 minutes to find live trees on casual walk along the parkway. You just have to know what you are looking at and for.
That’s amazing! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I would love for American chestnut lumber to be available once again.
Yes! Back when I first came to Virginia in the 70s ...people were still finding old chestnut logs on the ground that could be sawed!
In addition to the original root, there has probably been some new root growth over the years powered by many cycles of shoots. Its Essentially functioning now like a shrub which is pruned back every few years.
I was wondering about how the roots were functioning! Thanks for share!
I just liked and subscribed to your channel.
Thank you! Appreciate you! Please comment any time you have questions!
Fantastic !
Those trees are tenacious!
If you’ve heard of the ozark chinquapin it’s a chestnut, but a different species. Doesn’t grow quite as large, but still 60-80ft tall. The ozark chinquapin foundation has bred a blight resistant tree using only surviving trees in the wild, with no non-native hybridization. I think we ought to focus restoration efforts on that tree as it performs extremely similar ecological functions, is native, and already has blight resistance. I also think this is a better candidate for hybridization as it’s more closely related and native. I attended their annual meeting for this tree and one presenter was an American chestnut enthusiast who was testing wild trees to gauge their resistance levels and he found someone. Who grows American chestnuts who had several trees that were fully American and had comparable blight resistance to Chinese. I think that the genes for resistance are out there in the wild, but because a, we so poorly managed the disaster back when it happened, b, poorly managed the species before the blight, and c, blight wasn’t the first disease to wipe out chestnut in the us, and d, before contact there was no reason for Mother Nature to select for these genes, they are at extremely low levels. And we’re at a point now where the root systems are going to continue to die out and without regeneration we will likely lose the species. I truly hope we don’t. I have a deep love and appreciation for our native chestnuts/chinquapins!
Interesting perspective on past history and current efforts. Makes me rethink!
Great info 👍
Thank you for watching!
I have 60 acres in the Clinch mountains in TN. I have 3 trees I know of that produce a few chestnuts every year but that is it. They are 30-40 ft tall and look stunted. I also wonder sometimes if they are Horse Chestnuts from the leaf pattern. But I see the small trees also. I try imagine what the land would look like with mature chestnut trees. Must have really been something.
That’s incredible that you have those trees! It really shows how resilient the chestnut is!
@@natureatyourdoor I think the American Chestnut Society has located small groves of American Chestnuts that are normal and healthy but it is a big secret (on purpose). They want them left alone to flourish and they don't want people near them. I think they will come back. It will take a long time but it will happen thank goodness. If I had such a grove I would leave my land to the socierty for that reason alone.
I BOIL chestnuts to use in my cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. For many years the only ones I can find are from Italy. I used to get them in south Georgia 50+ years ago from a tree growing in the back yard of a relative in Tifton.
Classic recipes...have you seen my episode about chestnut trees planted in Switzerland by the Roman's 1800 years ago?
@@natureatyourdoor I'll look it up. WOW 1800 yrs. !!!!!
I still have many sprouts on my property. 30 years ago, I sent leaves and nuts to Dr. Sandy at the AG Exp Station in Hamden, CT. She said that mine were 7/8 American. Probably from experiment chestnuts that a UCONN Professor planted in the early 1900s. Some of mine have gotten to 8" diameter and 30'+ tall before sucuming to the blight. Many of my trees fight off the blight repeatedly before dying. My American Beeches now have something killing them. Good Luck, Rick
Wow! Thanks for you very interesting share. I have a single chestnut on my 18 acres...no sprouts ...a reported it to local chestnut foundation as well
.please see my other chestnut videos for more info!
I know nothing, but I feel that if the American Chestnut fights so hard to live it will indeed make a comeback someday... Don't give up. Because you may very well succeed........ ❤
@openyoureyes3969 i feel that way too!
I also have an "addendum" if you'll allow it! I have a photo of a huge chestnut stump on our Family farm with a '23 Ford T-model parked on it. The year was 1924 I think. According to my Dad, the huge tree was struck by lightning and they cut it for lumber to build a barn. Dad said it took days to down the giant.
Fantastic! Thanks for share. Wish photos could be posted here!
Thanks for the vid. Interesting channel. How come you didn't mention the blight-resistant transgenic chestnut trees? What are your thoughts on them?
I didn't want to delve to deep in this video...lol..I could have talked for hours on the 3 main prongs of research and how they crossed resistant genes into the native tree genome...and now are back crossing to try to eliminate all Chinese genome from the native except for the gene test gives blight resistance...time consuming and very complex genetic manipulation with public fear of releasing genetically altered trees into the world!
@@markczarnecki7251 (I’m sorry this is so long) tbh from the research I’ve done the gmo isn’t blight resistant and there are a few contributing factors. My own thoughts are that I’m not sure if gmo trees in the forest are a good idea, but I fully admit I’m not really qualified to make that assessment. However I do think they would be perfectly acceptable to use as ornamental, orchard (although American chestnuts aren’t great orchard trees as they’re just too big), or lumber trees if they have enough resistance to keep cankers from ruining their ability to produce usable wood. Now on to the good stuff
1. When cryphonectria parasitica (aka chestnut blight) is modified to turn off the gene that produces oxalic acid it is still able to produce tree-killing cankers on American chestnuts. It is absolutely less virulent, however it can still be quite lethal. The only thing the gmo chestnut can do differently from wild American chestnuts is break down oxalic acid.
2. The gene “controller” I forget what it’s called, if I remember this correctly is still a wheat controller, and it basically has the gene on at full blast all the time, and this itself seems to have a stressing effect on the tree. There are efforts to use different genes and different controllers so that this gene is only turned on when the tree is under stress, like from the chestnut blight.
3. I personally think that there are better routes to take, if you look into the Canadian chestnut council they’re working to breed blight resistance from the less than 1000 known trees left alive in Canada. Their trees were somewhat isolated and seem to be more closely related to our southern population, than our New England population despite the obvious proximity. Our southern population is the heart of genetic diversity in the species because during the last ice age they were pushed very far south. This puts Canada in an interesting situation, because in the south of the US, in the late 1700s or early 1800s we had root rot killing chestnuts, and this disease completely kills the tree as it’s killed from the roots, so no root suckers are produced. The southern chestnuts got a double whammy.
So, considering we lost more of our southern trees, and the south (and Canada) is where the most genetically diverse trees are, this might mean Canada has trees with genes that we might not have, or have very low levels of. They’re also lucky that it generally stays too cold for root rot to get a foothold there. I believe this year they’re planting their 3rd generation of pure American chestnuts that they believe have significantly higher blight tolerance than wild trees.
If you’re interested in this topic I’d suggest you look up the ozark chinquapin foundation RUclips channel. This tree is a slightly smaller Native American chestnut (60-80ft tall) that this organization has bred resistance to chestnut blight by finding (literally only 46 or something like that) wild healthy trees to cross breed. These trees are hundreds of miles apart and wouldn’t have been able to breed otherwise. Their best trees exhibit BETTER blight tolerance than asiatic species. This leads me to believe that since their range overlaps, and they’re closely related, and they can cross organically in the wild that blight resistance genes do exist in American chestnut trees at extremely low levels. I could go on forever, so I’ll stop here!
I have an American Chestnut tree in my yard. Just a Stump but it sends up sprouts. They live a couple of years and then they die only to be replaced with new sprouts.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
Yes--our farm in Central Ohio--settled in the 1790s--still had enormous stumps of chestnut trees, felled in the 1920s. So sad.
Amazing about your giant chestnut stumps. A testimony of the past!
I predict that the American Chestnut tree will eventually win the long term survival battle. Nature finds a way.
Agreed...it eventually will...but on nature's timeline.
I know of two mature 60 year old chestnuts in PA that put out beautiful nuts every year, no doubt isolated just enough from its deadly fungus nemisis
Or have some unique genes!
were the horse chestnuts not attacked? i recall a large horse chestnut in Pa.
Different family.
Horse chestnuts are not effected. Btw they are a European transplant.
Great presentation.I have just lost all of my white ash as in the hundreds several years ago all do to an invasive insect from asia and now the spotted lantern fly has arrived this summer.Circle of life?
Global realignment and mixing of species.
I purchased two Chestnut trees hybrids I hope they produce chestnuts
That would be awesome! Good luck!
What’s the difference between the chestnut Oak and American chestnut?
Completely different species. Only related by a common word in the name!
@ thank you for clarifying. The nut photos online look very similar to the hazelnut. I wonder if I could grow one in Kentucky? I am a wildlife rehabber and love having a variety of trees for my squirrel releases🙏
@flightrisk6176 an American chestnut? Or chestnut oak?...or a Chinese chestnut?
@@natureatyourdoor the American chestnut. We have many chestnut oak. And I will have to look to see what Chinese chestnut is. although I will not plant anything that is non-native. I am in Oldham county Kentucky.
Thanks buddy
You're welcome!
Is there any way to fight off the fungus?
Nope. 😥
I have an American Wormy Chestnut desk. It is gorgeous.
😎!
Just started noticing these all over the Cumberland plateau. So tantalizing watching them grow and die making weird burls on the ground. I really hope someone cracks the code for these puppies soon. Right now all the genetic diversity is being saved by these trees in limbo.
It’s wonderful you are noticing them and watching them!
Great video reminded me of my uncle Ray. When I was a young boy he would come to my house in Boston and take me for a ride to explore the woods. Im 78 now and was bout 10 at the time we would walk the Blue Hill reservation in Milton where there were chestnut trees full of what he called "horse chestnuts". Were these the same as American chestnut trees?
Sorry for the long story but I really miss this true gentleman.
Sounds like a great man. There is another species called horse chestnut but it is a European transplant.
That's hard to believe that 100 years later we still can't find a solution to the fungus problem. SAD!
A huge part of the problem is the expense. You'd need to treat millions of acres.
Breed hybrids of American / European / Chinese
They are doing several different prongs of research.
@@throckwoddle Seems like they have enough money to send to Ukraine, & for freebies for the millions of migrants. It's sad.
@@natureatyourdoorany inoculation stories?
Has anyone tried adding copper and zinc to the soil?
?
@@natureatyourdoor
Extreme Fungus infestations happen in soils deficient in copper and zinc, especially true on depleted soils like Limestone based in rainy areas, and the Appalacians are an old old range, may be minerally depleted. not sure what the rock substrate is there though.
Basically you could try copper and zinc filings, shouldnt take much..
Over the soil in an area they are trying to sprout in, or if planting seed from isolated from the fungus stands, which do exist.
You can get soil tests at Ag University labs to get a report on how much needs applied. by the acre or hectare. would be worth researching and trying, I would avoid other chemical feritilizers. just go metallic copper and zinc and not too fine. or it wont last.
@garylester3976 interesting! Thanks for sharing your thoughts,experience and knowledge with me and viewers of the channel! Valley and ridge are limestone, shales, capped with sandstone or conglomerate...blueridge is more metamorphic with quartz and schits
There's mother trees in pa never died !! Lots of root sprouts but mature ones
Good to know!
Could you grow chest nut tree in Iowa
Perhaps! Away from sources of blight!
And the Oaks are now fighting the Sudden Oak Death oomycete. Like the American Chestnut I think they'll hang on, but the forests will never be the same, and all of the critters that depend on the nuts will continue having a hard time.
Let's hope some biological agents or pesticides are developed that can help fight these infections on a large scale.
Ugh...yes.
In Northern Kentucky, we still have a few of these around, producing chestnuts. We’ve collected several over the past several years. As far as wildlife goes, I am a rehabber and curious as to which animals eat these. I know the squirrels and birds around here do not care for them.
As I understood deer and turkey and hogs feasted on them. I am surprised that by your observations!
The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was a primary food source for many species of wildlife, including:
White-tailed deer: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall
Wild turkey: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall
Black bears: Ate the nuts to fatten up for winter
Allegheny woodrat: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts in the fall
Squirrels: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts
Hogs: A major consumer of American chestnut nuts
Raccoons: Likely benefited from chestnuts
Mice: Likely benefited from chestnuts
Grouse: Likely benefited from chestnuts
Crows: Likely benefited from chestnuts
Blue jays: Likely benefited from chestnuts
There are two chestnut trees next to my dad’s house in Westchester, New York. The largest of the two produces copious nuts in the fall. I have eaten them and they taste OK I guess the tree is about 40 feet tall. Pardon my pun, but the squirrels go nuts over these things and frequently break into the husks before they have a chance to hit the ground. I don’t know how they get into those husks because they are so sharp.
Thanks for sharing your story about the chestnut trees! Those Squirrels have good taste! 😀
Chestnuts Roasting On a Fire😅
🙂🙂🙂
I got one has died and resprouted several times since the late 70s part of the tree dies a new one cones up
Fascinating that you are able to watch this cycle first hand! Thanks for sharing!
you can still see the fallen boles of Chestnut trees, a foot in diameter, in at least one place along the New England National Scenic Trail in Massachusetts. They are a distinctive red color and very rot resistant -- so there they still lie, 100 years later.
That is amazing! Thanks for share!
Green Ash & Emerald Ash borer is the same story-line. Amongst other invasives.
Yes. Sadly, very true.. and the Hemlock woolley adelgid.
Great news! Bring back the chestnut with a high level of resistance to the killer fungus.
Yes! Fingers crossed!
Now almost every ash tree you see in the woods is dead or dying. Really sad. In the holston river watershed i see a lot of these chestnut trees sprouting from the old stumps. They get about an inch or two in diameter before they get hit with the blight. I know where one mature chestnut tree is, and its a beauty. Not far from Emory and Henry college. We need a pure American chestnut, no hybrids!
It really feels like that ...the list of trees disappearing is long!
The fungus is among us. Is there any chance scientists could dig up or somehow remove healthy sprouts and move them into a lab or some plot of land where the fungus doesn't yet exist to give the trees a chance to recover?
They could but as soon as release from quarantine it will die. 😕
@@natureatyourdoor Man, that's too bad. My wife is from Switzerland, so chestnuts are a fun tradition we have around this time of year and they are getting harder and harder to find.
@PryorTravis no way...did you see my Switzerland playlist that includes the chestnut trees of Ticino Switzerland? My mom was swiss we have family house on Lake Lugano..I go for several months annually!
@@PryorTravis ticino chestnuts ruclips.net/video/YqxvnRwWHqI/видео.htmlsi=XEN8qP0NOyY5cUee
@PryorTravis see our house on Lake Lugano! ruclips.net/video/E_v06ENdaxM/видео.htmlsi=3Q2Kvw5oQYi9aO0X
There is a small colony of MATURE American chestnut trees in wisconsin.
Yes..somehow geographical isolated from the blight!
I think the story is that a farmer planted them before the blight.
They were not native to the area. @natureatyourdoor
@MJDP1840 yes...out of range ...but most fascinating that the blight has not reached them!
I know you will think I'm gaslighting. There is a least one behind my place well beyond 40 ft. There are more I believe. I can't motovate like I used to. But I will check for the flowers in the spring. Morgan county,tn.
Thanks for sharing, that's amazing!
I found a Chestnut tree in the woods near me last year because i found the hulls on the ground. The tree was a large size too.
Pretty amazing!
My great grandmother as a little girl in the Pennsylvania mountains in the 1890s used to gather up the nuts with her siblings. Their mother would roast them.
Yes! A tradition for many. Also gathered by same as a cash crop to buy shoes and such for Christmas!
It surprising that there are still some around. I live in Northeast Ohio & am aware of 3 in my city. They're all fruiting, but none of them are clearly doing well at all.
It’s amazing that they are still around!
We could use some good news. Thanks
Yes...a small ray of hope! 🙂
I just wonder if there might be an anti-fungal that could be sprayed on these trees. Sure, we'd like it all to be organic, but if the American chestnut could be saved in its ancient form, isn't it worth a few chemicals?
I am not aware of effective treatments. 😕
i think they'll possibly gain resistance over time hopefully.
Hoping!
I know where some nice chestnut trees grow but I will never tell....
Ha! Right! 👍🙂
Mine is over 350 years old an still produces thousands of delicious nuts each year.
Wow, that's incredible! Where is it located?
@natureatyourdoor
Nw tenn.
Maybe a treatment drench that could kill the fungus.
Nope. 😥
It's very sad. After nearly 100 years the stumps are still trying to regrow, just to suffer the same fate over and over.
Yes. It really is sad to see.
Depressing. We have hundreds of these small trees in the park down the road. Heard of another location where there might be some mature trees. I planted some that are dying one at a time. One made it to 8 inch diameter. We keep donating to the society that is supposed to get us the darling tree that never seems to get approved.
Yes. It is depressing isn't it. It's taking a long time to reach a satisfactory solution!
"Functionally extinct."
This is because they, rarely, get to the size where they flower. And, if they do, there are no others close enough to cross pollinate from.
There is hope. But, as the problem was created by people, it has to be solved by them as well.
I could go into further details on two ways that can happen. But, the post would be too long.
If anyone is interested, I'll drop another note.
Best,
JJ
Sooner or later in those woods there will be at least one tree who will grow resistant to that fungus. It probably won't be in human timelines, but it will.
This is true!
knowin' what i know now, i think it's quite possible the fungus was introduced intentionally to cripple one of the greatest trees ever as it's the perfect wood.
Well...it really was the most perfect tee of all time...the facts make a real case for that!
They are NOT "extinct.
Found one in rural Pennsylvania
Correct. I learned from another viewer the proper term is "functionally extinct". There are also pockets of introduced mature trees in the northwest that the blight has been geographically isolated from!
Why doesn’t the Asian Chestnut tree replace the American Chestnut in the niche they occupied?
It is such a massive area to spread. The Asian tree does not have invasive characteristics like noxious Tree of Heaven. I was reading about how...if we did find a resistant native...it would take millions ? Billions of dollars to replant
Wow !! Never knew anything about this. Hopefully that seed hit the ground and was not eaten by a squirrel or something.
Yes! Exactly! 🙂
If biology is the way we understand it, there has to be some that are immune to the blight.
Yes. That is the crazy think about this particular blight...in it's totality! 4.5 billion trees died in a 40 year span!
yeah free seed for planting please
I wish!
I've got a joke for ya. What do ya call nuts on a wall .. wallnuts .. what do ya call nuts on your chest .. chestnuts .. what do ya call nuts on your chin ? 😮
😂
Coppicing either by human hands or natures hand will keep a tree in a sort of juvenal state for decades or depending on the tree species for centuries. These 'naturally' coppiced trees will continue to re-sprout for years to come. Hope the TACF resistance breeding project succeeds before they all begin to finally die off.
That’s a great point. Hopefully the breeding program does succeed.
I miss the Elms. Magnificent, even if pain in the ass pods or whatever they were that dropped from them. Giant trees, people have NO clue how stunted trees are today by comparison of what used to provide lush tunnel canopies of shade over wide streets and shaded entire houses and yards.
Also, would be nice to chow down on some of those fat pigeons they hunted out of existence. Free chicken?
It's hard to imagine how lush the canopies used to be!
@@natureatyourdoor Well with the increasing CO2 I feel that many areas will see a great increase in plant life, it is said parts of Africa are already showing signs of plant life recapturing desert lands, not everything is a downside to having a more enriched atmosphere for plants. Perhaps we may see some greater efforts into plant husbandry generally such that more resistant Elm and Chesnut trees may be developed as well as a widening of cultivated crops moving away from the overly industrially "owned" versions and associated chemical sales. The future could be interesting in many good ways, especially if we learn to not live in flood plains or right on the ocean beaches, or in places prone to weather issues and subsequent recurrent disasters. I think like most things, it will be a mixed bag.
Best wishes!
I had three beautiful chestnut trees on my property……there was nothing wrong with them……but the sidewalks were upheaved and destroyed so the city had to take them out and put in new sidewalk…..
Oh noooo! 😥
Cutting large tracts of chestnuts in their prime, seemed like a good idea at the time. 😢
The blight would have got them any way.
Oh noooo! 😉
I dunno, certainly we're seeing the worst deforestation of our generation. The trees now are nothing compared to what they used to be even 30 years ago. The chemtrails have killed so many millions and weakened the rest. All of my Whate Oak trees are now dead standing timber and any where the water runs you have dead trees.
While the chestnut is bad, we are seeing the worst all out deforestation of any generation.
Thanks for sharing.
With our modern bio - technology, we cant come up with a cure for the existing trees?
It’s a very difficult and complex issue! I address in my other chestnut videos!
Fish guts killed the fungus
@@ByronMacleod-r9p ??? Fish guts?
I have to admit I’m not usually moved by plant stories. I’m not really moved usually. But this tragedy simply is unbearable. I love chestnuts. That nature with engineer such a complete total devastation is simply unfathomable.
@@AnonymousAlcoholic772 it truly is...4.5 billion trees gone in 40 years...so complete annihilation!
@@AnonymousAlcoholic772 check this out...tell me what you think ruclips.net/video/YqxvnRwWHqI/видео.htmlsi=q6pF3TuASkWGyunu
The underground Fungi is what kept them alive. The relationship betwen them both keeps them growing.
? Can you send me a reference on this? Thank you! 🙂
@@natureatyourdoor pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6605023/#s5
there are many species associated with a American Chestnut, along with Oak and other species that it grows with. so if re-introducing into an area, having some soil samples taken around will give you a good idea of the fungal health for the trees and if they might need a little boost when planting.
Very sad.
Yes.
So Asia got us back, then too, killed all the chestnut trees just like they killed all the ash trees
We have sent plenty of invasive species to other continents as well. It works both ways.
You know what? They just need to be transplanted further north due to climate change. I see fungi increasing in Maryland. Its hard to keep the native and imported fruit trees alive without sprays.
They lived further north too. 4.5 billion mature trees wiped out in 40 years !
Thank you Frank! Very interesting!
Very welcome!