A guy I hunt with is an 77 year old farmer who’s lived around here his whole life. He knows a lot of information about the history and nature of the area. I’ve always trusted every word he speaks as the truth and he’s never given any reason to think otherwise. We were talking firewood species a few weeks ago and he said he had some chestnut trees on his property. When I acted shocked, he told me to take a quick ride with him. He then brought me to these small almost sapling like trees. There were a few clusters in the area. He said they will get to be a few inches in diameter, maybe 12’ high and then die. Here are some pictures. Knowing they die off after a few years of life gives me reason to believe they are American chestnut. Can anyone confirm?
Absolutely, Chestnut trees sprout from their roots. The blight kills the standing trees, not the roots. What he showed you are sprouting off a strong enough root system that has hung on.
I have at least half dozen American Chestnuts on my place. The fungus only attacks the above ground portion and the rootball stays somewhat healthy. I have a healthy (so far) 20-25ft AC, and a good number that have died off and sent out sprouts from the living roots. There is a naturally occurring virus that attacks the fungus that is showing promising results inhibiting the fungus. I suspect the virus is here and attacking the fungus on these trees. Let’s go American Chestnuts!
It looks like one, yes. We have Dunstan Hybrids here and will be planting more Chinese/hybrid ones in the future. I’m hoping the restoration process gets started soon with the resistant GMO strain of the American Chestnut. It’s in development and looks promising.
Looks like American Chestnut. The SUNY college of environmental science and forestry is working on the genetic engineering to get the blight resistance from the chinese chestnut into the american chestnut. To maintain biologic diversity they are looking for diverse locations with existing trees to start planting the new trees. A wildlife biologist friend of mine has mapped many of them for ESF in PA state forests and game lands. Once the US guvmet approves the planting (or should I say if) of the resistant trees they expect to be able to bring the American Chestnut back to most of its former range. You can send them a leaf sample to confirm its AC. My grandfather, born in 1898, remembered the blight and getting paid by the state to go out in the winter and cut and burn blighted chestnut. It didn't work. I still find them in Perry, Bedford and Franklin Counties of PA.American Chestnut | The American Chestnut Project | ESF Good info here American Chestnut | The American Chestnut Project | ESF
Yeah those look like they could be chestnut tree leaves. I can remember knocking the big green chestnuts out of the tree with rocks and sticks when we were kids and cracking them open. That tree was gone by the mid-sixties and unfortunately never had root sprouts.
