The Chestnut Project

American Chestnut Recovery

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Stuart Walker with the chestnut trees he planted in Wildwood, May 2001.

The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) used to be one of the most common trees of the Appalachian hardwood forests from Maine to Georgia. Growing to enormous size --up to 100 feet tall and 5 feet in trunk diameter, it was a major timber tree as well as a key species of the forest ecosystem. Wildlife from turkeys to squirrels to deer, depended on its autumn nut crop.

In the early twentieth century, however, a parasitic fungus, chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), somehow reached the United States, probably in imported Chinese chestnuts. The American chestnut had no resistance to this alien invader which proceeded to mow down the chestnut trees throughout North America. The fungus attack the inner bark, killing the nutrient-carrying tissues and starving the trees to death. Chestnuts are tough trees and the dead trees sprouted saplings from their roots, but few saplings got large enough to reproduce before the fungus infected and killed them. By 1950 the American chestnut was almost extinct.

A number of organizations are working to restore the American chestnut, either by searching out resistant survivors hiding in the forests, or by breeding the American trees with their resistant relatives from Asia. The American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation, of Newport Virginia, is one such organization. It crossbreeds American chestnut trees which show resistance to blight, and disseminates the nuts and the seedlings to interested people willing to plant them, nurture them, monitor their survival, and report the results to a central data bank.

Stuart Walker, a local boy Scout, chose to plant chestnut trees as his Eagle Scout project. He obtained nuts from the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation, and grew them to saplings which he planted in several locations. With the cooperation of Pathways for Radford these locations included Wildwood Park. The park trees were planted on the west side of the park, 19 May 2001. Stuart will be monitoring the growth of the trees, studying whether they thrive in this area and whether they successfully resist chestnut blight.