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Russ Filtz
08-01-2007, 1:25 PM
Probably already known around here, but I saw an article on how they are starting to bring back the chestnut tree from the fungus blight. Basically by cross-breeding with an asian variant that's resistant.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19997810/

Jim Becker
08-01-2007, 1:31 PM
There has been a program at Penn State for sometime now to help do this important work. They still have a number of years to go, but things are looking positive. And that will be nice when folks can once again have chestnut trees as part of the landscape...including, hopefully, in the wilderness.

Michael Morgan
08-01-2007, 2:59 PM
Kind of ironic when you think about it. Asian tree helping to Bring back the American Chestnut. Asian Beetle killing all the ash trees:(

Stan Terrell
08-01-2007, 3:18 PM
All the American chestnuts are not gone. There was a grove discovered within the last couple of years near Pine Mountain GA. I have two neighbors with bearing American chestnut. Make that "had"; the power company cut one of them because it was under the wire. I would have gladly paid to try and move it to my place if I had known in time.

Russ Filtz
08-01-2007, 4:34 PM
Even more ironic, the article said asian plants were what CAUSED the blight. Then again, that's probably why the asian chestnut developed its immunity.

The article also said the chestnut isn't really extinct and that many trees sprout every year. It's just that the fungus gets them right away.

John Daugherty
08-01-2007, 4:58 PM
I was talking to my grandmother once about chestnut trees. She told me when she was little (in the early 1920's) they would pick-up chestnuts by the feed bag full to feed their hogs.

Cliff Rohrabacher
08-01-2007, 5:11 PM
Now if they can just save my elms.