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.
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.
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
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...
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.
Interesting! Thanks for posting.
Interesting! Thanks for posting.
“Should we resurrect the American chestnut tree with genetic engineering?”
definitely. that would be awesome. we’re losing our ash trees in Colorado to the Emerald Ash Borer which carries a fungus that kills the trees too ... only way to keep them safe is to treat them with a systemic chemical injected into the tree every couple of years ... bark borers are killing our Austrian and Scotch pines as well, so those need to be sprayed every year as well ...
love to see ashes and elms genetically engineered for the future as well ...
The big chess tournament was taking place at the Plaza in New York. After the first day’s competition, many of the winners were sitting around in the foyer of the hotel talking about their matches and bragging about their wonderful play. After a few drinks they started getting louder and louder until finally, the desk clerk couldn’t take any more and kicked them out.
The next morning the Manager called the clerk into his office and told him there had been many complaints about his being so rude to the hotel guests....instead of kicking them out, he should have just asked them to be less noisy. The clerk responded, “I’m sorry, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
Sure plant the trees. Then give us back our Elms and Ashes.
Yes! Bring back the chestnut trees. Bring back the elms.