Last week the Maryville Daily Times ran a story about how University of Tennessee alumna working with U.S. Forest Service are trying to restore American chestnut trees to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.The project has resulted in test plantings of blight-resistant trees in three southern national forests. Planted over the winter, the young trees are 94 percent pure American chestnuts, but the remaining 6 percent has blight resistance derived from the Chinese chestnut tree.
"We'll know in about five years whether or not the trees will be successful in early establishment," said Stacy Clark, lead researcher with the U.S. Forest Service.
The American chestnut once graced eastern forests from Maine to Florida. This mighty giant all but disappeared last century as a result of a fungus introduced from Asia. It’s estimated that the total number of chestnut trees in eastern North America was over three billion, and that 25 percent of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were American chestnut. Today, very few large trees remain.
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