Restoring American Chestnut Trees – Vital To Local Ecosystems, Economies: Keystone Species Succumbed To Blight In 20th Century, Can Make Comeback In 21st

Staten Islander News Organization had the opportunity to sit down with Hoy, of the American Chestnut Foundation, to discuss their mission, and the importance of the work that they are doing to restore the American Chestnut to its former range and glory in the forest.

 

Most people who are alive today are not aware that those in our grandparent’s generations witnessed a major tree extinction in their lifetimes, though they may not have been aware of it. No songs were composed to mourn its loss, and there is only one song that we all still know that sings the praises of the majestic and mighty chestnut tree: Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire.

While we have all heard this song, didn’t you ever wonder why there are no chestnuts at Christmastime and the other holidays in the United States? I suppose I never really thought about it myself; I just thought that people used to eat chestnuts, and now they don’t anymore. I don’t know why, but I never asked myself why that might be the case. Why did these super-popular nuts have declined in popularity?

The answer to this question and many others are answered in the interview. However, to begin with, it was a matter of necessity and not desire that the chestnuts are no longer a holiday staple. Although you can often find Italian chestnuts in the stores, you won’t find American Chestnuts, and the Italian versions are quite expensive, too.

The American Chestnut Tree’s Place In The Ecosystem, From Productivity to Variety Of Supported Animals

While you can buy some chestnuts online, they are mostly Italian and Turkish, with some coming from the Western states. While this was not covered in the interview, there are some American Chestnut trees that survived the blight. These are in California and other places out west, where the wind blows toward the east, thus making it so that the blight spores did not reach them. However, in the trees’ original native range, there are fewer than 1,000 American Chestnut trees left. These trees were a mainstay of forests in the middle of the country to the eastern seaboard.

Not only were they an important tree, not necessarily a dominant tree, but they were a keystone species. What this means is that their presence or absence had an undue effect on the rest of the ecosystems in which they were found. When American Chestnuts were growing in the forests, they reached astronomical heights, and were in many cases taller than a ten story building at 100-105 feet. This allowed them to get ample sunlight on their leaves, which were mostly above the canopy.

Not only were they tall, so tall that harvesting them involved climbing in many cases, but they were extremely and, most importantly, regularly productive. Each tree that had reached maturity, usually within seven to ten years, would consistently produce pounds of chestnuts. These chestnuts would feed so many woodland animals, and the difference between the American Chestnut and other seed- or nut-bearing trees is a critical one to understand: this tree was an ANNUAL producer.

So, while an oak tree might produce pounds and pounds of acorns in a single year, for the next two or three years, the same tree will produce very few acorns. This made the chestnut tree a crucial component for animal diets. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but some of the little friends who relied on the nuts from these trees included squirrels, chipmunks, turkeys, grouse, many species of birds, and also humans.

In fact, in the Appalachia area, the chestnuts were a staple food. Not only for families and individuals, but many farmers sold chestnuts, and were able to make a decent living from this. Their disappearance, which was rather sudden, occurring within just a few growing seasons, led to the loss of another Appalachia staple, which exacerbated the problems of poverty that were already present in the area.

Nationwide, American Chestnut trees provided nuts for people everywhere. They were so popular, and so easy to find and gather, that they did make their way into a holiday song that has been with us for generations. Apparently, when they were roasted, the aroma could be smelled throughout the whole town. And they were delicious, too, and full of nutrition. According to Healthline (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/chestnuts-benefits#:~:text=A%2010%2Dkernel%20(84%2D,Fat%3A%201.9%20grams) ten nuts contain about 3grams of protein, 1.7 grams of fat, and a startling amount of Vitamin C (which is rare among tree nuts such as walnuts and cashews, which contain no Vitamin C).

So, while they may not have been the most protein-dense nut that the animals could find, they had other nutritional benefits, including containing copper and manganese, which are essential to many animals.

Restoration Efforts of the American Chestnut Foundation

As Hoy mentions in the video, there are many restoration efforts ongoing by the ACF. Most of these prominently use traditional breeding techniques, which has made them take a very long time to bear fruit, so to speak. Since it takes a chestnut tree 7 to 10 years, depending on environmental conditions, to reach maturity, it also requires the tree to be resistant to blight for that entire time and beyond.

There have been many successes in the ACF, and there are orchards where they have harvested resistant chestnuts. The simple fact that they have over five thousand members across the American continent is impressive in itself. It is no small feat to get people interested in an environmental cause, particularly one that may not benefit humans for quite some time, but bringing people together over this critical issue is also important.

Chestnut Blight Characteristics and Origin

To the best of their ability to deduce, it is believed that the chestnut blight came over to the Americas on infected Japanese nursery stock. One of the reasons why they brought over this stock in the first place is that they were dissatisfied with the size of the American Chestnut nuts. The Japanese chestnuts may have had larger nuts, according to once online source, and they hoped to cross them for mutual benefit. Whether this was seriously undertaken or not, it turned out that the newly imported plants had an infection for which the American Chestnut was unprepared.

One season, the people had a bountiful harvest of chestnuts, and the next season, they noticed a much smaller amount of chestnuts falling. The trees themselves died shortly thereafter. As described by Hoy, the blight infection starts with a canker, or sore, in the outer layer of the tree. Whether this is from a wind storm, a branch breaking, or some other injury, the spores of chestnut blight get into the opening and create an infection point. From that point, the fungus injects a digesting liquid into the bark of the tree, causing it to die, so that the fungus can then consume it. It does this because the fungus is a necrotrophe, surviving on dead material as opposed to living plant matter. Eventually, the canker becomes larger and larger, wrapping itself around the entire main stem of the tree and traveling to the ground. At this point, the tree is effectively dead.

However, the stumps will remain, with a root system intact. So every few seasons, the dormant plant sends up a shoot, which eventually is once more overtaken by the fungus. And these trees are massive. In many cases, a person of average height can lay across the stump of an American Chestnut, and they will not reach the other side with their outstretched arms. So they were truly mammoth trees. Although the trees may be surviving, they are considered functionally extinct, because they never have the chance to reach maturity and produce seeds.

Getting Involved With The Restoration Efforts

If you are a homeowner, or if you own land or an orchard, or if you are a non-profit that wants to get involved, there are many ways to help with these restoration efforts. The most important first step is to join your local chapter. This can give you access to purchasing seeds, or in the case of a non-profit or orchard owner, to become more deeply involved. Projects involving placing American Chestnut tree saplings or seedlings into reclaimed mining sites have shown great promise.

Regardless of their success, it is better than just leaving the fallow land to autumn olive or another invasive. The problem of invasives is beyond the scope of this article, but a review of the excellent book Nature’s Best Hope is forthcoming, which will go into this issue in depth.

Planting chestnut trees in your backyard can go a long way to helping restore this tree. Trees can be monitored for cankers, treated when they arise, and cared for until their maturity is finally reached and harvest becomes possible. All of the details for how to get involved can be found by researching your local chapter.

Hoy’s hope for the future involves seeing the American Chestnut once again becoming a vital part of the landscape of the Eastern Seaboard, Appalachia, and the other areas into which it once extended.

There is much work to be done, and the American Chestnut Foundation relies heavily on volunteers and other participants to successfully complete the restoration of this majestic and mighty tree that was, and could be again, a vital part of local ecosystems in the Eastern United States and beyond.

Following is a list of the questions asked in the video interview:

1- Please talk about the history and importance, both to animals and the ecosystem, of the American chestnut
1a- What was the American chestnut’s original native range?
2- Why did the chestnut decline?
3- Please talk about the restoration efforts your organization has been doing.  Please discuss any genetic manipulation, plant crossings, as well as external anti-fungal applications that seem effective and promising
4- Can you talk about the blight itself? Is it known where it originated? What species of plants does it attack other than chestnuts, or is it a chestnut specific pathogen? What type of fungus is it?
5- What can ordinary people do to get involved with your group?
6- Can people purchase or receive tree saplings from chapters of your group? What are the requirements in terms of location, climate, and available space one would need to plant a chestnut tree?
6a- What type of care, attention or vigilance is needed to make it work?
7- What are some of the challenges you have faced in restoring this tree?
8- What are some of your successes?
9- What is your hope or anticipation for the future?
10- Anything else you would like to add?

Banner Image: Video Cover. Image Credit – Staten Islander News