Hope for chestnut revival

“INOCULATION DONE AT THE ARBORETUM AT PENN STATE BRINGS
BLIGHT-RESISTANT CHESTNUT TREES ONE STEP CLOSER TO REALITY

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As he helped administer the fungus that
causes chestnut blight to more than 200 young hybrid trees in the seed
orchard in The Arboretum at Penn State on June 8 -- a huge step in the
process of developing a blight-resistant American chestnut tree -- Tim
Phelps admits he felt a twinge of doubt.

The research technologist in the College of Agricultural Sciences
-- who is also president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American
Chestnut Foundation -- knew that seven decades of crossing
blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees with American chestnut trees,
and then repeatedly back-crossing the progeny with other American
chestnuts, had lead to this moment. After five generations,
theoretically one of every 64 young trees at the arboretum exposed to
the blight should be highly blight resistant.

"Scientists with the American Chestnut Foundation are confident
that we are seeing blight resistance holding up across the various
generations, but sure, I will feel better when we see the complete
blight resistance actually express itself," Phelps says. "And there will
be varying levels. Only one out of 64 trees will show resistance on par
with its great, great, great Chinese grandmother -- and conversely, one
out of 64 will have no resistance, similar to the native chestnut
growing in our Pennsylvania forests today. The majority of the young
trees will be somewhere in the middle.

"After a thorough screening process, it is the trees that show
total resistance to this inoculation of the blight that will be selected
as parents of the seed that will be used to reintroduce American
chestnuts into the forests of the Mid-Atlantic region," Phelps adds.
"All the progeny of the trees selected after inoculation will be blight
resistant. We are that close."

Volunteers from around Pennsylvania -- and even Ohio and Maryland
-- were on hand at The Arboretum at Penn State to help with the
inoculation under the watchful eye of Sara Fitzsimmons, a research
technician in the School of Forest Resources who provides support to the
foundation's volunteer breeding activities in the Mid-Atlantic region.
She showed Phelps and the volunteers how to make small wounds on the
trees, use a spatula to apply blight-causing fungus from a Petri dish
and then tape the wound to be sure the fungus stays moist and deadly. It
took hours to inoculate the trees.

It won't take long to find out which of the young trees will be the
chosen ones, according to Phelps, who notes that trees susceptible to
the blight, which wiped out virtually all American chestnut trees in
North America after it showed up in New York in 1904, will begin
exhibiting signs of decline in a month or so. But final tree selection
at the arboretum will occur next May.

Many Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey volunteers of the
American Chestnut Foundation maintain earlier-generation hybrid chestnut
trees that also will be subjected to the inoculation/screening process.
Seed from trees selected after those inoculations around the
Mid-Atlantic region will eventually be planted in The Arboretum at Penn
State until the orchard numbers more than 30,000 hybrid chestnut trees,
according to Phelps. "The reason we are using chestnuts growing in so
many different places coming from different sources is that we want to
avoid inbreeding," he says. "And the American Chestnut Foundation is
using chestnuts adapted to different parts of the country.

"We wouldn't be able to reforest the entire chestnut range with
only trees grown in Virginia," Phelps adds. (A similar advanced chestnut
hybrid inoculation was done at the foundation's main seed orchard in
Meadowview, Va., last year.) "For instance, chestnut trees from the
south would likely die if we tried to grow them in Maine. Regionally
adapted hybrids developed by making crosses with native trees increases
the likelihood that resistant stock will be more suitable in our local
forests."

The stakes are high for success of the chestnut program. According
to the American Chestnut Foundation, prior to the chestnut blight, one
in four hardwood trees in Pennsylvania was a chestnut. Mature chestnuts
averaged up to 5 feet in diameter and grew to 100 feet tall, and many
specimens reached 8-10 feet in diameter. Wildlife from birds to bears
and squirrels to deer depended on the tree's abundant crops of
nutritious nuts.

The tree was one of the best for timber, according to the
foundation. It grew straight and often branch-free for 50 feet. Loggers
tell of loading entire railroad cars with boards cut from just one
chestnut tree. Straight-grained, lighter in weight than oak and more
easily worked, chestnut was as rot resistant as redwood. It was used for
virtually everything -- telegraph poles, railroad ties, shingles,
paneling, fine furniture, musical instruments and even pulp and
plywood."

Penn State has been a partner with the American Chestnut Foundation
since 1997, according to Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology and
director of the Arboretum at Penn State, who was an early proponent of
locating the seed orchard there. "We do not precisely know the genetic
makeup of these hybrid chestnut trees or even the mode of genetic
control of blight resistance -- we think three genes control blight
resistance," he says. "The inoculations that we just did at the
arboretum were the final test of breeding theory and our informed
conjectures.

"Each of the oldest trees in the arboretum seed orchard were
carefully inoculated with two strains of the blight, a fungus that
originated in Asia," Steiner adds. "Susceptible trees will be killed by
the disease, and theory says that most of the trees will be highly or
moderately susceptible. However, if the breeding program has been
successful, a small fraction of the trees will be resistant to chestnut
blight. These trees will have only a mild reaction to the inoculation,
somewhat similar to the mild reaction humans have to smallpox vaccine."

This year's inoculations are the culmination of about 70 years of
work toward developing a blight-resistant American chestnut, according
to Steiner. "These trees are the direct descendants of a 1935 cross
between a Chinese and an American chestnut, and the first-generation
back-cross to American chestnut was made in 1946," he says. "Naturally,
we are very excited to see how these inoculations work out. We will know
by the end of the summer whether we have been successful."”

“Now that is good news.

If only we could save our elms. I have two in my back yard, but they're the smaller slippery elm.”

“Chestnut revival work has been going on for years. When I was in Virginia, I wrote a story about efforts there, more than 20 years ago.

This does sound promising, but as my late mother used to say about raising flowers in the garden, "It's got two chances; either it lives or it dies."”

“Yeah, it's already happening in my neck of the woods, pun intended. :-) I think I posted about this before, but....

I just found this story on the local research by Badgersett Farms. I've heard Phil speak in person...

http://www.auri.org/news/ainoct00/08nuts.htm”

“Interesting. Whenever chestnuts do come back, there will be about 50 people saying their research did it.

It's all good though.

Chestnut log homes and barns in Virginia have lasted 200 years, some with very little care. And some still stand.

Chestnut logs were used as cribbing when the CCC built Skyline Drive. It had a life expectancy of 50 years, and right on the mark the Park Service had to replace it. That's 50 years for untreated wood in the ground.

I made a darned good filling for Cornish game hen with chestnuts once. Have never found nuts good enough to try it again.”

““Now that is good news.

If only we could save our elms. I have two in my back yard, but they're the smaller slippery elm.”
Gremlin
3:17:12 PM
6/15/05
ignore this use

Add Beech to the list as well.”

“What's happening to beech? We have maple/beech forests here.”

“Chestnut was once the dominant tree in the eastern hardwoods forest. Mountain people made a decent living off the nuts and the bark, not to mention using the wood to build houses, barns, and split-rail fences.

The chestnut blight hit full force in Virginia in the 1930s, and I still found chestnut that obviously died about that time and it was still tough to saw. It is a very rot-resistant wood.

The bark was sold to tanneries. The nuts were a staple food source, high in starch.”

“Beech Bark Disease is killing of many of the Beech trees in the Adirondacks.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/beechbark/fidl-beech.htm”

“Thanks.

That is really bad news. They say it arrived in Nova Scotia and has travelled through Quebec (blame Canada), but I've never heard of it, nor seen stands of dying beech here.

Maple and beech are our dominant hardwoods here.”

“White birch is not doing too well either. I think that has to do with acid rain.”

“there are still stands of old chesnut trees along the AT. near the maupin field shelter there is one. they're dead, but the trunks still stand today. they were tough trees. it's not hard to find saplings that have died yet as you walk along the trail either.”

“What happens is they keep sprouting, but reach a point where the trunk is about two to three inches thick and then the blight gets them.

In time, they might develop blight resistance on their own. Science hopes to move the timetable up.

Some American chestnut even reach nut-bearing age before succumbing. Not many, though.”

“There are a couple of things making life hard for beech trees anymore. The bark disease is one, but not the only one. When I went to school in Ohio, beech trees were on the decline throughout that area, as well. Research conducted by one of my professors showed a pretty marked decline in the numbers of beech trees, and that new trees weren't growing to replace the old ones. I'm not sure about the cause, but I do know that beech trees are sensitive toward light conditions, so forest composition might be affecting it.

In the grand scheme of things, though, our forests in general are in TERRIBLE health. Just about every species has some sort of condition threatening the species in at least part of its range.

I just moved to PA from MI, and MI is a hotbed of activity for the emerald ash borer, which is a major problem. The USDA has set up quarantine and containment zones around the state to try to halt the spread of this beetle.

In the southern Appalachians(Nantahala Nat'l Forest), I saw hillsides brown in June because of all the pines killed by the southern pine bark beetle.

I really do hope that biologists can come up with a viable chestnut hybrid that they can start planting. They're working on a similar strategy with elms, though it's not as far along. This is probably going to be a continuing theme in forestry science...developing disease and insect resistant trees because a species has been decimated by some epidemic.

Though I do hope that we eventually can improve the overall health of our forests by keeping them thinned enough that they aren't as susceptible to "crowding" diseases.”

“the Hemlock wooly adelgid is making our virgin hemlock forests into dead trunks all up and down the east coast. Almost no living hemlocks even remaining at all in Shenandoah. The big virgin stands there--some of the best anywhere--are all dead, now. HWA is in the Smokies doing its worst to kill our groves there. It's really bad in Georgia, with most of the big groves in the Chattahoochee National Forest infected. Alas.

The European chestnut was also hit with the blight as ours were. The weird thing there is that the native chestnut trees in Europe developed a virus after a few generations that kills the blight--and the European chestnut tree has recovered there. Unfortunately, the blight-killing virus is specific to the European chestnut and cannot be introduced to the American chesntnut. Alas.

Eventually, I think an American chesnut strain will be created that will resist the blight. Either through man-made genetic manipulation, or by Mudda Nature.

The rangers in Crowder's Mountain State Park (near Charlotte) just discovered a 45 foot-tall American chestnut tree doing just fine. Producing flowers and nuts. No sign, so far, of the blight.”

“Hey Bob, are you referring to English or Spanish chestnuts? I'd read the Spanish variety was immune.”

“The old forests did fine without being thinned.

Several forces are at work here. First is the introduction of non-native pests against which our native species had no defense.

As if that were not enough, such issues as acid deposition from coal-fired power plants is altering the chemistry of the soil. And then there is global warming.

What humans need to wake up and realize is the forests are the canary in the coal mine. This should be our wake-up call.

I covered a talk about deer overpopulation and the effect that is having on our forests. In effect, deer are eating themselves out of house and home.

But it impacts other species - the plants they are decimating for one, and other animal species that depend on those plants for cover or food.

The speaker said we are not having a deer problem, but a habitat problem.

In short, the forests of the future are likely to be unlike anything we have today.

In addition to all the other species, there is the hemlock adelgid and a host of other disease or pest issues threatening our forests.

And then we have Mountaintop removal coal mining, strip mining, logging, and campers who think they need to cut down live trees so they can have a nice delightful campfire.

America - enjoy it while you still can!”

“There was an Italian variety that was immune, I seem to recall, and they were trying to cross American chestnut with that. Didn't work well, I assume.”

“Bob Smith and I were pecking out similar posts almost at the same time. Skeery!”

“it would be great to have the chestnut tree back-diversity is what is needed -when you have too many of the same species comprising the total you end up with problems with disease resistance--”

“The type of chestnut tree I was referring to is the one in western Europe--which would include Britain, Iassume. The virus that kills the blight cannot be introduced into other species of chestnut trees--it just dies.

Another thing about the American chestnut is that IT WAS A WHOPPING HUGE TREE!!!!! THEY GOT TO BE ENORMOUS FRIPPING TREES!!!!!! I would KILL to see those come back. Of course, we will never see the big ones--it takes 400 or 500 years for one to grow as large as they were in the Southern Apps before the sawmills and the blight took them down. As late as the 1950s, there were still some truly eye-popping giant chestnut trees in the Smokies.

Keep in mind, also, that in some areas of the southern Apps, the chestnut tree made up as much as 60% of the total content of the forests. I've heard stories of some mountains in Georgia looking like they were covered in snow when the flowering parts of the chestnuts blossomed.

We don't miss what we never knew existed.”

“No Bob, but we are still impoverished by the loss.

Through a surveying error, loggers missed a stand of virgin spruce near Gaudineer Knob in West Virginia. I was there in the late 70s, and again a couple of years ago. The older virgin trees are slowly succumbing to age, and the forest is beginning to open up. The cathedral air that had been there is gone to a large degree.

But then this is a natural progression that takes place. The plot is a science lab project of sorts as biologists study what is taking place. While change has taken place over the years, it is natural change and more easily accepted. But if, through disease or pests that virgin plot were to disappear quickly, I can tell you that future generations would be impoverished over the loss, because it was, and still is, magnificent.”

“Something that most people don't realize is that throughout a large part of the United States, the land has been "managed" by people since the glaciers retreated...meaning that forests here have NEVER had the opportunity to just go on their own without human intervention for the past tens of thousands of years (glaciers covered the land in many areas prior to human arrival, and what land wasn't covered by glaciers was probably some sort of tundra or plain for quite a distance south of the glaciers).

The forests here are conditioned (might we say evolved?) to growing in a managed condition where they have been periodically thinned by fire or cutting to encourage game use. Things changed when Europeans showed up and started clearing the forests for timber and extensive farmland. We learned that wholesale clearcutting was a bad idea because of the resulting erosion and horrendous wildfires.

The rise of the modern environmental movement brought legal challenges to even selective cutting operations, which has tied up proposed timber sales and prescribed burns in litigation for YEARS. As a result, many forests in our country are unhealthily thick. I've worked for the USFS and I've seen some of these areas myself. When the trees are so thick, they become stressed and immunocompromised, making them increasingly susceptible to even native insects and diseases.



Full-size image here http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid69/p5538959fe09f02be53fc1b74b0a3f5e9/fbb6c67f.jpg.orig.jpg

This is one area. Cedar Mtn, UT. Almost all of the Engelmann spruces are dead (over 3/4 of the trees here) because of increased susceptibility to the spruce bark beetle due to overcrowding. This is a subalpine forest type, dominant trees are the Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir.

Like I said, it's a general forest health issue...there are VERY few places in this country where a forest could be called healthy (I don't know any/haven't seen any). Lots of places in the east and upper midwest have deer overcrowding as a major issue (caused by lots of factors, including a lack of predators), with nonnative invasions and some diseases. CWD in WI, Bovine TB in northern lower MI, and lots of other issues. Most invasions of nonnative species are fairly innocuous, but some are problematic.

I think we're talking about the same issue here, except we have different examples to cite based on our experiences.”

“Here I am on the summit of Gaudineer Knob October before last. We were camping at Seneca State Forest and drove up to the Knob. It had been cold during the night (low 20s), but we were stunned to see about three inches of snow on the top 300 vertical feet or so of Gaudineer Knob. Yes, the spruce forest up there is very nice. It seemed in good shape last year, at least.


last edited: 6/15/05 8:12:43 PM”

“That sounds like a monoculture "benefit" conferred by timber companies.

Have we learned anything from that? Doubtful.

In the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, our administrative assistant (like an executive director without the title) has been raising native red spruce and balsam. He approached the folks responsible for mine reclamation about using native seedlings, but they are using stuff from outside, and undoubtedly creating monoculture forests.

Red Spruce ecosystems do not seem susceptible to monoculture diseases, but the current situation is that the red spruce generally consists of islands among hardwood forests around them.

Balsam in West Virginia is relatively uncommon, and they mix in somewhat with red spruce. Indeed at the overlook on the east side of Blackwater Falls, from the viewing platform, you will see balsam mixed in with spruce.

Where monoculture existed to any degree naturally, the threat was from diseases or pests introduced by humans. But I suspect it was not true monoculture, but dominance of one species over others.

The Limberlost in Shenandoah was the stand of virgin hemlock somebody mentioned earlier. That was a huge stand, and a natural hemlock ecosystem - wet soils.

Also in Shenandoah, pines predominate on south-facing, drier slopes. Those are threatened by pine bark beetles and other problems.

Not exactly true monocultures, but limited stands.

Ramseys Draft is another stand of hemlock that is being affected by the Wooly Hemlock Adelgid. Moist stream valley surrounded by hardwoods on the slopes.

I think we've reached a point where problems are spreading regardless of whether it's monoculture or mixed forest. Our forests are being stressed by mostly problems of human origin.”

“Bob, that is on the knob itself I take it. That is not the virgin stand, which is at a lower elevation. Those are second-growth spruce. Two people can't link arms and reach around the trunk of the virgin giants. But yes, the red spruce is healthy throughout WVa. At least for now.”

“it would be great to have the chestnut tree back-diversity is what is needed -when you have too many of the same species comprising the total you end up with problems with disease resistance--”
fingerlakeshiker
6:17:58 PM
6/15/05


We now have to apply for a permit to plant trees in our city. There is a list of approved species, all very diverse and quite unusual. The effort is too make sure we still have trees. All our Elms are gone, the Ash trees are all getting killed (it's mind boggling how much damage happened so fast) and cut down. The concept is to make sure there are so many varieties that one pest or blight doesn't take out half the citie's trees. Seems like we've lost about 1 out of 10 with the emerald ash borer.

I hope the chestnut trees prove resistant.”

“If I must be buried, bury me in a simple shroud, no casket, with a blight resistant chestnut in each hand.

I figure that way I have a 50/50 chance of being a part of something great after death.”

“The dogwoods are going away also.”

“the big insence ceders in CA are being effected by a fungus :(”

“Nice thought HPM.”

“Where is that lonesurveyor?”

“both east coast and northwest dogwoods have been hard hit with a leaf blight - see link

its really sad to those of us that remember the forests before the blight - in the spring there were these clouds of white flowers floating in the understory - now about the only place to see dogwoods is on the margin where the sun light keeps the leaves dryer and thus less likely to contract the blight”

“If I must be buried, bury me in a simple shroud, no casket, with a blight resistant chestnut in each hand.

I figure that way I have a 50/50 chance of being a part of something great after death.”
humanpackmule


Okay Sweetheart, I heard your request.”

“Some of the worst threats for eastern forests that I've heard about are:

Hemlock wooly adelgid (ongoing).
Balsam wooly adelgid and acid rain two-punch (high elevation forests seem to be recovering somewhat, now that all of the mature trees are dead).
Dogwood blight.
Oak blight that results in death--moving eastward from California. (What the HELL are we gonna do if the oaks are taken out??!!)
The beech forests are under stress from blight and air pollution. Looks like we'll lose them, too.

Any others come to mind?”

“sycamore blight - rather similar to the dogwood blight - around here we have been losing a few sycamores to this blight - see link

also the emerald ash borer has great potential to be a major problem but I have not seen it in my area yet

another insect that is in my area is the southern pine bark beatle - affects both Virginia pine and short leaf pine - the two dominant pine species in my area
last edited: 6/16/05 8:36:39 PM”

“White birch, I believe to acid deposition.”

“Where is the chestnut near Charlotte, i might make a trip to it in July...”

“Go to the park there. You'll have to ask a ranger at the visitor's center for directions to the tree. I know it is near an old home site. I haven't been to see it, and while the ranger I spoke to was really proud of the fact that they had such a large American chestnut with no sign of blight, he may not want to give the exact location. I didn't ask him for the exact location, so I can't say if he'd surrender it, or not. But I can say for sure that he's only too happy to brag about it.

He also said that nuts were collected for the purpose of adding to the genetic base, and that pollen was also collected when the flowers were in bloom, and cuttings were taken. There was a LOT of interest in this particular tree, since he said it's suspected that it has grown so large not because it has been isolated, but because it may very well be blight resistant.

He was a really nice ranger. I forget his name. But I can say that he's the ranger in charge of extending the Crowder's Mountain/Pinnacle Trail all the way to the SC line. The new trail will be open in a year or so--he thinks they're going to stick to the route he chose and blazed, with only a few variations. The huge amount of land the park had added to it will now take it all the way to Kings Mountain State Park in SC. So there will now be quite an enormous chunk of protected woodlands stretching from Kings Mountain State Park to Kings Mountain National Battlefield Park to Crowder's Mountain State Park. And a long trail will follow the ridgeline from one park to the next. An amazing accomplishment for such an urban area.”

“Around here it was the Asian longhorned beetles that came in packing crates from China. They quarantined several towns and had to grind up and burn hundreds of infested mature trees to make sure it didn't make it into the forests. That would be a disaster.”

“Work is being done at Virginia Tech on blight resistant chestnuts. I have planted many trees in the last 6 years. If interested in planting and observing trees for blight resistance see

www.ipm.ppws.vt.edu/griffin/accf.

(I would highlight the address but I'm not a computer guy and don't know how.)This is the site for the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation”

“link doesn't work, even without the dot at the end.
last edited: 6/19/05 5:48:29 AM”

“Last time I looked at the Virginia Tech site, it hadn't been updated in quite a while. And they wouldn't respond to email requests for information on buying chestnut seedlings.”

“The link is working. I got it at work and here at home. You may write the ACCF at 2667 Forest Service Rd 708 Newport, VA 24128. I have sent postcards and letters to order and Lucille has always responded.”