hide caption. Like many others I would love to grow a few trees and have available untouched mountain acres to do so. You can purchase pure American chestnuts from several vendors (e.g. They’d be a great resource for questions about local growing conditions: www.acf.org/va. The soil bacteria has protected them from the fungus. We are hoping that we might be considered as a 'civilian' site for seedling planting for the blight-resistant strain? There are several wild life Preserves around Lawrence Kansas, and Burlington Kansas that are easy to get to and can be watched closely. Bear, deer, wild turkey, squirrels, many birds and small mammals – and the once huge flocks of carrier pigeons – all depended extensively on them. @Jude Rutkowski - thank you for your comment. In order to build on their goals, Allegheny National Forest managers and Northern Research Station scientists are collaborating in four new studies on the forest and surrounding forestlands to evaluate first the importance of site quality to chestnut competitive ability and blight resistance; second the impact of deer browsing on chestnut survival and growth; third the planted chestnut response to prescribed fire; and fourth the application of the three-stage shelterwood system for chestnut establishment. They provided food. I am reading the book, "The Overstory: A Novel" and in this book the author describes the American Chestnut tree in the eastern US just prior to its demise. And last but not least, chestnut trees helped make agriculture more sustainable. While it is believed that survival of this species past the next decade its native range is almost impossible, much effort is being done to help them. @Rick Jones - thank you for your comment. Then, the viable nuts will be planted and injected with the blight to see which ones survive. I have just under 100 acres in central Virginia. Most of the trees die. In addition, a (very) few mature American chestnuts still exist, apparently resistant to the blight. Before Emerald Ash Borer and before Dutch Elm Disease, an extremely lethal tree pathogen found its way to North America: chestnut blight. Researchers at the foundation are breeding the American chestnut with the Chinese chestnut, which is resistant to the blight. Are there any forestry programs for Planting American Chestnut Trees? John Ray. Chestnut blight was first noticed on American chestnut trees in what was then the New York Zoological Park, now known as the Bronx Zoo, in the borough of The Bronx, New York City, in 1… Stream CBSN live or on demand for FREE on your TV, computer, tablet, or smartphone. This disease was accidentally introduced into North America on imported Asiatic chestnut trees. Chestnut like well-drained, acidic soils (pH between 4.5 and 6.5). I would be happy to plant some in Easton, nH. And then, a little over a century ago, they were suddenly wiped out by a fungus imported along with Japanese chestnut trees. Hope to plant them next year. Many of the strategies are safer than typical bioengineering to keep the trees from becoming cross-bred. "We as a science team are trying to develop an American chestnut tree that has enough blight tolerance that it could survive in the forest," said Tom Saielli, the mid-Atlantic regional science coordinator at the American Chestnut Foundation. “European chestnut is one of the columns upon Western Civilization was built, ranking up there with the grapevine and olive tree as Mediterranean staples,” he adds in a Ted Talk titled The Return of the American Chestnut. assistance available for private landowners that wish to reintroduce American Chestnut on their own property...!!! The trees are “technically extinct,” according to The American Chestnut Foundation. The thought of this program being frustrated by un-scientific ideologies is abhorrent to any rational person. Now, chestnuts roasting on open fires across America are of the larger, less sweet European and Asian varieties. It reached southern Ontario in the 1920s, and by the 1950s, the American chestnut population was considered “effectively extinct”. These female parts are called catkins (twig-like) and appear in late spring to early summer.