Chestnut tree poised for comeback

It's taken Dr. Hebard 18 years of painstaking hybridization to get to this point of having several hundred fully blight-resistant trees. Before him, predecessor Charles Burnham began the work in 1983.

Earlier this year, about 2,000 partially blight-resistant American chestnuts were planted on reclaimed mine land. Those trees may not survive beyond about six or seven years because they are not blight resistant. Even so, the effort will enable researchers to better understand growing conditions on such land.

Trials of the fully resistant American chestnut are expected within three years, when the ACF and the US Forest Service expect to plant thousands of the best of the "holy grail" seeds in two forests – in Kentucky and West Virginia – the heart of the chestnut's domain. About that same time, members of the ACF will also begin receiving seeds for planting.

Indeed, 13 state ACF chapters, whose orchards maintain about 40,000 partially resistant chestnut trees, will play a vital role in the chestnut restoration. Smith's Massachusetts chapter, like the others, is growing small orchards of the trees, slowly doing their own hybridization programs. Pollen from the best trees will be sent from Virginia to ACF chapters to accelerate development of varieties well-suited to regional weather and soil.

One new problem the foundation is facing isn't blight, but keeping the seeds from being sold on eBay for fat profits.

"Everybody and his cousin wants these seeds, but we've got to be real careful about naming it and what we're going to claim about [the trees' capabilities]," says Paul Sisco, a co-architect of the recovery plan with Hebard. "We won't really know how good it's going to be until about five years from now."

In fact, a tree labeled "fully blight resistant" may still contract the blight, but it should be able to ward off the fungus altogether.

Other groups, such as the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation, are taking different approaches to breeding. Some hold out hope for a direct genetic-engineering fix, although that task is daunting because the tree's genes have not been sequenced.

"We are planting the hope, and making a commitment, that this noble hardwood will be restored to the American landscape and its vital ecological role in our nation's forests," Dirk Kempthorne, US Secretary of the Interior, said on July 26.

Today when consumers buy chestnuts for "roasting by an open fire" during the holiday season, they come from the Asian chestnut and other varieties that resist blight. But now it looks as if the American version could return one day. "I'm looking forward to growing a really big one in my backyard," Smith says.

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