American Chestnut Blight

This tiny Fungus has nearly wiped out all of the American Chestnut Trees

Related Links:

Wikipedia – Chestnut Blight – American Chestnut

American Chestnut Foundation – NY Chapter

This entry was posted on 7 November 2007 by mon@rch. It was filed under Nature and was tagged with American Chestnut, Blight, Fungus, tree, Wordless Wednesday.

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18 responses

Nick

How big is that Chestnut? I know of one spot in a remote patch of natural area here on campus that has a few Chestnut saplings up to 1″ diameter.

Cheers,
Nick

7 November 2007 at 6:49 pm

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Birdbander11

That is cool, are there rare. Well I should not say that it is cool. They almost wiped out a cool tree! Is that fungus rare?

7 November 2007 at 7:24 pm

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mon@rch

@ Nick – this one was producing seeds and I can’t remember if this was the 16inch one or 18 inch one! We have many root saplings growing but seems like it doesn’t take too long before the blight gets to them!
@ Birdbander – thanks and the trees are what are hard to find rare! Once the saplings get to certain size the fungus kills them!

7 November 2007 at 8:08 pm

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KGMom

Oh so frustrating. These lovely trees fall prey to small enemies.

7 November 2007 at 8:22 pm

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nita from red tin heart

i thought the japanese beatles did a pretty good job on them too. that is what i have read, wait, maybe that was the american elm trees? ~nita~

7 November 2007 at 9:02 pm

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mary

I haven’t seen Chestnut trees anywhere I’ve lived recently… What can be done? Odd.

7 November 2007 at 9:07 pm

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Larry

I’ve heard that there is a Chestnut in New Hampshire that they are using to create chestnut trees for other states.

7 November 2007 at 9:15 pm

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mon@rch

@ KGMom – we have many others moving through the area now also! Ugg
@ Nita – have not heard that with the chestnut! Interesting!
@ Mary – at this point, nothing really! The root sprouts will continue growing, then dying until the virus just disappears! Only has been happening since 1900’s!
@ Larry – they think a few trees have genetically become blight resistant but since it takes a very long time for those seeds to produce seeds, it’s hard to tell if they really are or not!

7 November 2007 at 9:31 pm

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Veery

I am currently studying various outbreaks in a Forest Ecology class and it can be alarming and depressing!

The scariest thing about the chestnut was the speed at which the trees disappeared. It used to be such a prevalent tree species.

7 November 2007 at 11:00 pm

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Patrick

I heard about this book about the chestnut somewhere recently:

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10570.html

8 November 2007 at 9:18 am

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martytdx

It’s a sad effect of our shrinking world, when zoonotic elements from one part show up where they can do so much damage. I know that they are coming up with blight-resistant trees, but I’m not sure how far along they are. I’m fairly sure that Penn State is one of the places leading the research, though (I seem to remember reading about it in the Penn Stater magazine).

8 November 2007 at 9:24 am

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mon@rch

@ Veery – Very alarming and depressing for sure! It really effected many of our birds and believed to assist in the disappearances of the Passenger Pigeon.
@ Patrick – Will check out, thanks!
@ Marty – They are still working on it and it can take a long time to find out you were wrong. But they are trying to plant from trees that they think might be blight resistant. Thanks!

8 November 2007 at 10:32 am

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Michael Head

There is park in Erie County, NY called Chestnut Ridge. Unfortunately there are none there any more. There is a stand of Chestnuts along the rim a Zoar Valley but that is the only one I know of.

Where in the Park was that picture taken Tom?

8 November 2007 at 11:45 am

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mon@rch

Mike, I think this one was in the summit area!

8 November 2007 at 12:14 pm

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Bernie Kasper

I came across a few old stumps in the Smokies where these majestic trees once stood, all that is left now is their rotting stumps. It’s kinda strange as well when you find these massive old stumps in the park a lot of times you will find fresh shoots of the original tree coming up from the old root system, I guess then when they reach a certain size or age the blight strikes them down again.

8 November 2007 at 1:52 pm

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mon@rch

@ Bernie – That’s good the old shoots are still coming up! If they ever do come up with something to kill this blight, you will have tree’s growing their! Thanks

8 November 2007 at 5:07 pm

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Powerbirder

They have found a stand that is fruiting and producing seeds in Georgia. http://www.livescience.com/environment/ap_060518_chestnuts.html

They are also mapping areas and taking genetic samples of trees that were taken outside of the natural range and although not resistant to the fungus are reproducing by seeds. The fungus has not reached them yet.

http://www2.volstate.edu/jschibig/resurrectingthechestnut.htm

9 November 2007 at 4:52 pm

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Rurality

I read a book recently that was saying that when everyone discovered that all the chestnuts were dying, they ran out and cut them all down, for the wood. So they cut down almost all the ones that *may* have been resistant, too.

13 November 2007 at 7:37 am

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