In the face of climate change, people may feel frustrated – uncertain what they can do to make a difference. Scientists say planting trees is one important way to help, and there’s a movement underway in this part of the world to restore the American Chestnut.
More than a hundred years ago, one quarter of the trees in some Virginia forests were American chestnuts. They could grow to a hundred feet according to Sarah Fitzsimmons at the American Chestnut Foundation.
“They could be an average of five or six feet in diameter at breast height, and there are documented cases of trees reaching 15-feet in diameter,” she says.
That’s why they were called the Redwoods of the East and valued for their rot-resistant wood.
“They called it a cradle to grave tree,” Fitzsimmons explains, “because it could be used for cribs and coffins and everything in between.”
But as Americans imported chestnut trees from Asia, they brought a fungus or blight that would eventually wipe out an estimated 4 billion trees.
“In 1904 it was identified at the Bronx Zoo in New York, and by 1950 it had pretty much made it through the entire range – down to Georgia and west into Indiana and all the way up into Maine,” she recalls.
Now, using hybrids and genetically modified seeds, the foundation hopes to bring back American Chestnuts – relying on volunteers to help map locations of existing trees and plant new ones.
Sarah Fitzsimmons will speak at Piedmont Virginia Community College Tuesday, February 19 at 7 p.m. in the main building's auditorium. You can hear her interview with Sandy Hausman by clicking the arrow below.
