American Chestnut

Prior to the 1920s, American Chestnut, Castanea dentata, was one of the most widepread trees in the forests of the Eastern United States. A fungus accidentally introduced from Asia wiped out the species east of the Rocky Mountains. PFFFT. Gone. Now, the only unaffected large numbers of trees are in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Brought in by settlers in the 1800s, these trees are the only ones that don't carry the fungus. Given how many undesirable plants and pathogens have come to the Willamette in recent years— most notably infestation of kudzu and sudden oak death— it's only a matter of time until the fungus arrives.

Realizing that, in the early 1990s, I conceived the idea of creating a couple of isolated tree farms away from the Interstates in SW Oregon and NW California.

Around 1994 or so, I floated the idea to Oregon State University. Their reaction was: good idea: go to it. Unfortunately, no more help than that.

I tried again around 2002, making inquiries of the Northeastern Research Station of the Forest Service because I figured that they would have some records of how to grow prepare the seeds, how fast they grow, what they require in terms of water, soil, etc.. Instead, they just bounced it back to the Southwest Reseach Station, which helpfully said that American Chestnut didn't grow in California. Gee, really. That is why I asked the NE Station...

Now, of course, with Oregon recently deciding that any farm has to make $80,000 of crop per year to get the agricultural tax writeoff, sooo, if I make enough with these books to do this, I'll have to do it in California, which now has sudden oak death, which, since it kills similar species, most likely will kill the chestnut if an infestation occurs. No luck for the chestnut... Any project will have to be done with utmost care.

A link to Virginia Tech's Tree ID page: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/DENDRO/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=21

A link to the USGS' map by Little of the former range of Castanea Dentata:

http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/castdent.pdf