American chestnut article

[Crimsonking]

A forester friend of mine posted this article on Facebook announcing the finding of a healthy chestnut in Maine-

http://news.mpbn.net/post/tallest-american-chestnut-tree-found-maine

I thought some of you might get as excited as I did.

 

[tomthetreeman]

I think Bingham will be interested in the line about other species resistance to disease and insects including EAB.

I found a three trunked chestnut with 9-10" trunks near me in southern RI a few years ago, wonder if it's still there.

Tom

 

[oceans]

Nice post. I got word of another American Chestnut somewhere near Greene, Maine. I didn't get the chance to see it myself. This type of sighting is encouraging.

The American Chestnut Foundation has an excellent publication titled 'Mighty Giants'. I highly recommend delving into it.

 

[oldoakman]

There is one is west Ga, supposedly 16"dbh.

 

[oceans]

I wonder just how many more there might be out there in the wild. If I recall correctly, the tree that sparked the ACF hybridization was an old Castanea dentata that stood alone in the middle of "nowhere". It was infected, but somehow carrying on. Nature is no closed system, so there must be more around...at least I can only imagine so.

 

[Treezybreez]

And so begins the clone wars.

 

[KTSmith]

To find exciting trees in the woods is probably always a good thing. However, despite the press attention given to this specimen, I haven't seen any statements from an actual forest pathologist. And here might be why: There are lots of American chestnut trees out there in the woods. So far, they have all been found susceptible to chestnut blight (CB). Yes, there have been some "escapes" of American chestnut that are not infected. However, when challenged with the pathogen, they all develop CB. Maybe the truly resistant counter example will pop up, but it hasn't in the more than 50 years of searching.
The CB fungus has shifted the growth form of chestnut from a tall, spreading tree to a multi-stemmed woody bush. Is that a problem? For us, yes. For the tree species driven to maintain itself, maybe not so much.
Infected chestnut stems do die early, to be sure. As a root and stump sprouter, new chestnut stems of the same susceptible genetic stock are produced, infected, and maintain a reservoir of virulent pathogen in the woods. We've learned a lot about the fungus, including that the fungus can be infected with a virus, making the pathogen "hypovirulent" or much less aggressive. Researchers have been working on hypovirulence as an environmental treatment for chestnut blight (CB) for at least 30 years. They don't seem much closer now than when I was a grad student. The fungus is quite adaptable and capable of rapid genetic recombination, so disease control is a moving target.
The American Chestnut Foundation is a good organization with an effective public relations program. They fund and otherwise support a lot of work in their hybridization program to introduce new hybrid stock which mostly contain American chestnut genetic material with the Asian chestnut disease resistance genes. As with all selective breeding, the trick is to get hybrids with all of the characteristics you want and none of the characteristics you don't want. And with trees, it takes a while to raise up a generation to be old enough to produce seed and even longer to find out if the growth form is what you are shooting for!
But sure, neat tree.