Posted on 08/22/2019 9:47:46 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
The wild chestnuts around this leafy college town used to grow in such great numbers that locals collected the nuts by the bushel and shipped them off to New York City for a small fortune.
These days, though, it can be hard to find a single tree thanks to a devastating blight imported from Asia in the late 1800s.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Do we also have to clone the village smithy?
The American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) is a large, monoecious deciduous tree of the beech family native to eastern North America. Before the species was devastated by the chestnut blight, a fungal disease, it was one of the most important forest trees throughout its range, and it was considered the finest chestnut tree in the world[1].
The American chestnut was an essential component of the eastern U.S. forest ecosystem. These “Mighty Giants” stood up to 100 feet tall and numbered in the billions.
https://www.acf.org/the-american-chestnut/
Sure, as long as we bring back the passenger pigeon to nest in them as well.
The banning of DDT had a huge part in doing them in. They were keeping it under control in many places until it was banned, and once it was banned they were forced to try more expensive, more toxic, and less effective against Elm Bark Beetles which spread the fungus.
A real shame. Beautiful trees.
Would be easier to use rock tools.
What could possibly go wrong?
in our part of the country, the biggest hill is called “Chestnut Ridge”, for generations it was the primary building material, we have the old hand hewn “wormy chestnut” beams out of our old barn we had torn down stored still, and they are quite valuable... It would be a wondrous thing to see the American Chestnut re-established on a large scale. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was pretty much impressed with them, too.
A tree does not compare to old technology.
It would be great to grow chestnuts here again. They are a crop, like corn.
The chestnut blight was accidentally introduced to North America around 1904 when Cryphonectria parasitica was introduced into the United States from Japanese nursery stock.[8] It was first found in the chestnut trees on the grounds of the New York Zoological Garden (the “Bronx Zoo”) by Herman W. Merkel, a forester at the zoo. In 1905, American mycologist William Murrill isolated and described the fungus responsible (which he named Diaporthe parasitica), and demonstrated by inoculation into healthy plants that the fungus caused the disease.[9] By 1940, most mature American chestnut trees had been wiped out by the disease.[10]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight
Yes. IF it would be profitable such that taxpayers are not paying for the project.
Have three in my back yard. My father planted two hybrids (Chinese and American cross) around 60 years ago and there is one volunteer, younger tree.
I’d like to see it tried, because they’re beautiful trees. If it helps them recover, great. If they turn out with tentacles, not so great. It’d be kinda cool, though...
He’s a pretty long fellow.................
The American chestnut tree died out fairly early in the 20th century, long before any DDT ban. My father planted a couple of hybrids to help bring a form of them back in the 1950s.
*** “wormy chestnut” beams out of our old barn we had torn down stored still, and they are quite valuable ***
I bought the house I’m in about 15 years ago. I had some work done a few years ago, and the contractor told me the paneling in my family room is wormy chestnut. I’m glad that I know, so I don’t do something stupid, like paint it, or replace it.
Why not bring back the chestnut tree? They hybridize vegetables for all kinds of conditions and adaptations.
There are village smithies that are very profitable now. There is a market for such but it is, of course, far smaller in proportion to the population than it once was. I know one such who built a very profitable shop. He started out in a rented storage shed and now owns his property and building. He works for mail order mostly but has a pretty good trade among the locals in a small, even hick, town making knives and copying old tools. He regularly gets orders from groups that do re-enactments and has made pieces for historical displays. He has two employees that work on commission.
The chestnut provided food, trade goods, building materials and animal feed.
YES
The wood is excellent for building
They generate a very tasty nut for food
They are beautiful
They produce ample shade
They produce oxygen
So easy a choice that I wonder why the question is being asked?
Blight resistant chestnut trees have been found in the Missouri Ozarks.
The seed is being collected, taken to a nursery, then sprouted and grown to a size suitable for planting in the wild.
This is the proper approach to restoring the American Chestnut.
Creating a GMO frankentree is a bad idea, and will surely have unintended consequences.
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