American Chestnut

My house was built pre-blight. I have a lot of chestnut inside, and I have a bunch of rails from an old stacked split rail fence around one part of my property. There's not enough to re-build the fence, plus they look pretty beat. They are, however, still amazingly solid-not punky. Cut and burn? Would definitely be seasoned! It seems somehow sacriligious. I should try to rebuild a part of the fence, but it's such a low priority on my long list of things to do around the place.

personally I would save them, or even try to sell them. American chestnut wood is hard to come by, and I would love to have a chunk of it just as a souvenir.

The lastest I've heard is that there is a hybrid of a blight resistent American Chestnut. It would be nice to see this tree restored to it rightful place as the tree this place we call America was built upon.

There's always some members of a species resistant to disease. It's such a shame that we went and cut *all* the trees down instead of waiting to let the resistant ones survive and create resistant
offspring.

yep it's true...unfortunately we won't see it restored in our lifetime. still it's good news!

very true, but it's nice to know one day it'll be back. Kathleen, any news on the Hemlock down where you are about the woolly adelgid, any resistant stains found yet?

Check out The American Chestnut Foundation for more info about the hybridization and restoration project.

Penn State has plantations of trees that are something like 95% American Chestnut, with just enough European or chinese Chestnut DNA to resist the blight. I gather they grow pretty fast on a good site. i think if you have some land and are willing to follow their rules (keep the weeds down, etc.) you can get some seed or seedlings.

Here in my wood land the American Chestnut is still surviving after a fashion, at least the roots of some of the old trees still live. Sprouts from these roots sometimes grow to about the size of my wrist before the blight takes them. Then a blister forms on the bark and it all over. Then the roots send out another sprout and it grows for a few years. I have seen a few get large enough to produce a few nuts. I am now 74 years old but as a boy I remember seeing the woods full of the skeletons of the dead trees. They were a great loss to man and animals.

I think a pile of chestnut fence rails may be one of those things that seems like it must be worth saving for something, but when you think about it, you can't figure out what. One of those woods you say "it is a shame to be burning this, but..." as you put it in the stove.