Posts filed under ‘American Chestnut Foundation’
Legacy and Inheritance on National Land
The March-April 2009 issue of AT Journeys includes a great article by Wendy K. Probst entitled “A Remarkable Inheritance“. It’s about Dayton Duncan and his work with Ken Burns on the upcoming PBS documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.
In 1959, nine year old Dayton Duncan visited his first national park with his parents. When he was grown with a family of his own, he revisited the parks. His children were able to take in identical views and share the same experiences their father had as a boy. Meanwhile, Dayton Duncan found himself awed by the consistency of the parks.
But sometimes, we don’t want national lands to stay the same. Take the case of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philpott Lake in Bassett,Virginia. By the time Congress approved the construction of Philpott Dam in 1944, Virginia’s American Chestnuts had already been ravished by the blight. Patrick County had lost its main cash crop. Gone were the days when wagons were loaded full of nuts and shipped from Bassett. Philpott Dam was completed in 1952 and a new recreation area was born. But it was a recreation area that couldn’t reflect what the forest once was.
On March 18th, Ryan Somma and I joined forest rangers, biologists, Friends of Philpott members, teachers, high school students, and two professional RVers at the Philpott Lake Overlook. We were there to witness the planting of one of the American Chestnut Foundation‘s backcrossed trees, a sapling bred to be blight resistant.
Restoration Biologist Robert Strasser tends to the tree
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Park Ranger Susan Martin digs
VA TACF President Cathy Mayes and Robert Strasser plant the tree
VA TACF Board Member Dr. John Scrivani fills in the hole
In the AT Journeys article, Dayton Duncan spoke about the value of national parks:
I was able to show my children the exact same scenes — unchanged — 50 years later because we, as a people, had decided to preserved them unimpaired for future generations. That’s a remarkable inheritance[.]
American Chestnut Foundation President Bryan Burhans also thinks about future park visitors, but a little differently.
Your grandchildren someday may sit here at this spot, and the forest may look much different. That is a huge legacy to leave.
The American Chestnut Foundation strives to return the species to the forests in its native range, including Philpott Lake. This little sapling was the first of its kind to be planted in Bassett, Virginia, but it is the hope of all involved that one day it will be far from alone. When we gathered at Philpott Lake that Wednesday morning, we weren’t there just to watch the planting of a tree. We were there to celebrate a coming change to the landscape.
Dayton Duncan described national parks as “one of the last refuges where precious memories can be safely stored from one generation to the next.” Indeed, the American Chestnut Foundation and the staff of Philpott Lake aspire to safeguard memories. It’s just not the memories of adjacent generations.
They don’t want to show my children the small, stunted, black-barked chestnut trees I can find in the forest today. Nor what my father could see when he was he was boy. Not even my grandfather was born into a blight-free world.
It’s my great grandfather. Those are the memories they want to share.
More pictures of the Philpott Lake American Chestnut Planting can be found on my Flickr site.
More information about the American Chestnut and its restoration efforts can be found at the American Chestnut Foundation site.
Vote For America’s Ranger of the Year
Have you had a great experience with a park ranger this year? Vote for them for America’s Ranger of the Year (Deadline: March 31, 2009).
I voted for Danny Martin of Philpott Lake for his work with the American Chestnut planting.
Vicky’s Nomination – Danny Martin
| Of course, the voting is write-ins. That opens the door for another winner– Stephen Colbert.
Colbert’s had quite some success with write-in votes. He’s fresh off his win of NASA’s online contest to name a new room in the International Space Station. “Stephen Colbert” received 230,539 write-in votes. He beat out a NASA provided choice, “Serenity”, by 40,000. So watch out, Park Rangers! : ) |
 Actual Winner- Stephen Colbert? (Photo from thelastminute) |
Weekly Winners – March 15th – March 21, 2009
This week’s Weekly Winners come from a variety of locales. I started the week at home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Wednesday was an eventful day. We woke up at dawn, did some hiking in Fairy Stone State Park, Virginia. Next we attended the planting of a blight-resistant American Chestnut. The afternoon brought more hiking and then a quiet night in a lake front cabin. The weekend was spent in Occoquan, Virginia where I attended my brother’s 30th Birthday Party.
Henry Relaxing – Elizabeth City, NC
Fairy Stone Lake at Dawn – Fairy Stone State Park
Holly at Dawn – Fairy Stone State Park
Little Mountain Falls – Fairy Stone State Park
Shadowy Trail – Fairy Stone State Park
Learning a New Leaf – Fairy Stone State Park
Park Ranger Susan Martin and American Chestnut Foundation Virginia Chapter President Cathy Mayes Head to Planting Site – Philpott Lake, Virginia
Future of the Appalachian Forests? – Philpott Lake, Virginia
Fairy Stone Lake from Stuart’s Knob – Fairy Stone State Park
Jimmie and Ryan Rest in Cabin – Fairy Stone State Park
Birthday Boy Hugs Girlfriend – Occoquan, Virginia
More pictures of Fairy Stone State Park, the American Chestnut Planting and my brother’s birthday party are available on my Flickr site.
Also, be sure to check out more of this week’s Weekly Winners out at Sarcastic Mom!
links for 2009-03-20
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Last Wednesday, I attended a planting of an advanced American Chestnut hybrid at Philpott Lake, Virginia. Here is the the local newspaper’s coverage of the event.
Connotations of Chestnut
Ted Anthony of The Associated Press is fond of incorporating the noun “chestnut” into his articles. He seems to use it a lot. Like in this article on John McCain from April 28, 2008:
Gently, carefully, he invokes a classic GOP chestnut – taking a shot at the 1960s.
– “McCain says Americans Most Willing to Sacrifice” by Ted Anthony, April 28, 2008
Or in this article on Washington Outsiders from October 27, 2008:
The tale of the outsider blowing into town with maverick sensibilities has been a campaign chestnut since the days of America’s first true populist, Andrew Jackson.
– “When Washington is Broken, Enter the ‘Outsider’“, October 27, 2008
Or in this article on the arrival of Election Day from November 3, 2008:
We’ve heard charges of socialism and guilt by association, accusations of incompetence and elitism and, that old chestnut, lying.
– “Finally: Decision time for a deeply divided USA” by Ted Anthony, November 3, 2008
Or this one on the election decision from November 5, 2008:
The focus on change comes after a campaign that brought a useful national chestnut back into play: the American vision of the future, which as a concept was a driving political force throughout much of the country’s history.
– “A worried America chooses its course for change” by Ted Anthony, November 5, 2008
When Anthony uses the word “chestnut”, he’s not referring to trees. There is another meaning — “An old, frequently repeated joke, story or song.”
In his 2008 articles, Anthony exposed repetition and past patterns with the phrases “classic GOP chestnut”, “old chestnut”, “campaign chestnut” and “national chestnut.” On February 25, 2009, he found another opportunity when writing about Obama’s address to congress. Staying true to his formula, Anthony prefixed the noun “chestnut” with a descriptor. This time he chose the word “American”:
Facing lawmakers and Americans by the millions, Obama traded doomsaying for optimism and invoked an American chestnut – the tenacity of hope. “We will rebuild, we will recover. And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” he said.
– “The 21st-century fireside chat: Did Obama connect?” by Ted Anthony, February 25, 2009
Suddenly the phrase has added connotations. When I read it, instead of thinking of a theme or slogan that is repeated frequently in our nation’s history, I thought about the work of the American Chestnut Foundation. I thought about all the people in the past century who worked desperately to save the species and died before they could see success. I thought about all the people along the way who planted and cared for trees that were destined to contract the fungus and perish. I thought about today’s scientists who are closing in on the journey, but will not live long enough to see the formidable girths of aged trees in the Appalachian forests.
Why did people plant trees they knew were going to die? Why do researchers work so hard for giants they will never get to see? It’s simple.
Hope. Because of hope.
So when I saw the phrase “invoked an American chestnut”, that was my immediate interpretation. In my mind, the phrase “American Chestnut” is synonymous with “hope”.
Of course, some people don’t see it the same way. My friend Larry had a third, very different, take:
[Socialism] is the blight that will sink our ec[o]nomy just like what happen[ed] to the amer[ic]an che[s]tnut.
: )
In his February 25, 2009 article, Ted Anthony paired together two words… and provided us at least three ways to think about it. There’s a return on investment.
American Chestnut Cameos
This fall, Ryan Somma and I have been making cameos on the homepage of the Virginia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. We are just followers. The tree itself has been making cameos long before either of us were born.
Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday. Like many young men, Lincoln spent his youth chopping trees for split rail fences. When Illinois politician Richard J. Oglesby looked for a way to brand Lincoln’s campaigns, he wanted to find “one thing in Mr. Lincoln’s unsuccessful career as a worker that could be made an emblem.” That one thing was rail-splitting and it was effective! During the 1860 Republican Convention in Illinois, rails split by Lincoln and his cousin were brought in and held a banner that read, “Abraham Lincoln the Rail Candidate for President in 1860.”
With that aspect of his background getting so much attention, it is not surprising illustrations and paintings often depict a young Lincoln splitting rails.
Three depictions of Lincoln Splitting Rails
And what is he splitting? Nowadays, split rail fences are made out of cedar. But back in Lincoln’s time, the American Chestnut, with its tall and straight trunks and its strong and rot resistant wood, was the tree of choice.
So, whenever we look at illustrations in history books or oil paintings on museum walls and we spy Lincoln splitting rails….
The American Chestnut is making a cameo.
iNaturalists of 1805
A few weeks ago in my post on iNaturalist.org, I mentioned how past observations, even seemingly benign ones, could one day prove to be valuable data. I had two examples. Thoreau’s meticulous notes on when flowers bloomed and old family photos revealing when trees leafed. Today an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Key to reviving Georgia’s chestnuts trees may lie in its past“, gives us another example– two hundred year old surveying data.
Nathan Klaus of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources noticed that when surveyors in 1805 documented landmarks of interest in the Georgia mountains, they included American Chestnut trees. Klaus is integrating the data from the old surveyor’s maps into GIS, painting a detailed picture of where American Chestnuts once thrived in Georgia.
So…What does it matter where American Chestnuts grew over 200 years ago? They’re all dead and blight-ridden now, right?
Well, remember that meticulous backcross breeding program of the American Chestnut Foundation? Their blight-resistant chestnuts are starting forest trials. Once those trees are proven, they’ll be ready to be reintroduced into Appalachian forests. Nathan Klaus will already know where in Georgia the chestnuts favored the most. He’ll know the best places to plant.
Thanks to old surveyors, the iNaturalists of 1805.
American Chestnut Foundation Cameos
In October, shortly after Ryan Somma and I attended the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Virginia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, he made a cameo appearance on the chapter’s homepage!
Ryan Somma, in a light blue shirt, appears in the bottom left corner of the header image
Last weekend I attended a fascinating lecture series on the “Restoration of the American Chestnut” in Richmond, Virginia. Now look who makes a cameo on the VA TACF site!
Vicky, in a medium blue shirt, appears in the bottom left corner of the header image
And just for curiosity’s sake…a friendly, purely innocent observation, of course, let’s compare the actual sizes of the two cameos.
I win. 🙂
Trail Days 2008 – Meadowview Farms
How could Trail Days possibly top the outrageous fashion, the wet crossfire of the Hiker Parade, the inspiration of Gitty Up Clogger Evan Ritchie, the excitement of the new Virginia Appalachian Trail License Plate, and the hilarious entertainment of the Hiker Talent Show?!?
It’s easy! Offer a tour of Meadowview Farms, where the American Chestnut Foundation is working towards a blight resistant American Chestnut.
A barn at Wagner Farm
Once known as the redwoods of the east, today’s American Chestnuts don’t get a chance to reach the formidable size they were known for. As they grow, they get infected with a blight that immigrated from Asia in the early 1900s.
A species that evolved in closer contact with the blight, the Chinese Chestnut, had developed a resistance to the fungus. It reminds me of the ending of War of the Worlds. “By a toll of a billion deaths, [the Chinese Chestnut] had earned its immunity…” But the Chinese Chestnut is a different tree and doesn’t grow nearly as tall as the American. The Chinese Chestnut may thrive in our gardens and yards, but because it grows so short it struggles in the forests. It can’t compete with the taller trees like my sister‘s favorite, the Tulip Poplar.
There are a variety of approaches in progress to try to restore the American Chestnut to its former glory. Some organizations like the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry work to identify the genes responsible for blight resistance. Other research focuses on the hypovirus which attacks the blight fungus. At Meadowview Farms, their prime focus is a backcross breeding program.
View from the Wagner farm with a new planting area.
They started with a generation of trees that were half Chinese and half American. Then they backcrossed those trees with fully American parents. That next generation was backcrossed with another pure American parent and so on. Through breeding, the researchers are slowly developing the trees that are blight resistant and increasingly American. At the farms, I saw trees that are currently 15/16 American.
Generation BC3F2 – which is 15/16 American. These trees are all the same age. The smaller trees are ones that take more after their Chinese ancestor.
For us humans, the online dating sites all have their own means for identifying successful matches. The backcross breeding program at Meadowview Farms may be more stringent than the reportedly fickle eHarmony.com. With each new generation, the trees are carefully evaluated. First, the researchers want to see trees with more American traits. A tree that exhibits the shorter stature or other Chinese characteristics is eliminated. Next, and more importantly, each tree is purposefully inoculated with the blight. Cankers are measured and only the trees that exhibit blight resistance will be bred. Meanwhile, to preserve a large level of genetic diversity, pollen is collected from all over the country to serve as the pure American parents.
And this whole breeding process isn’t as simple as putting two trees together and adding Cabernet Sauvignon to the mix. The flowers of the trees have to be bagged at just the right time. Then the flowers are manually pollinated with the proper parent. When you are talking about tens of thousands of trees, this time-sensitive task is nothing to scoff at.
An American Chestnut at Wagner Farm
After the tour of the farms was complete, I loitered around the American Chestnut Foundation booth at Trail Days. While I waited for my carpool buddy, I eavesdropped.
Discussion at the American Chestnut Foundation Booth
It seems oral history is strong when it comes to the American Chestnut. Every person who came into a booth had an anecdote or memory to share about the tree. How they used to eat the chestnuts, spotted some saplings recently, or heard the barrage of white flowers used to make our Appalachian Mountains look snow-capped in the summer.
I’ve seen the same phenomenon in my personal life. My Great Uncle recollects posing for a picture by a huge trunk as a boy. My father tells me about trees he thought were large survivors. Just last week, I ran into an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker near Rocky Gap. His trailname was “Freebird” and when the subject of American Chestnuts came up, he too had something to say:
“My grandfather told me that it used to be a squirrel could travel from Georgia to Maine, just on the branches of American Chestnut trees.”
Back at the American Chestnut Foundation booth, one of the volunteers opened up a brochure and showed a visitor an old black and white picture of a huge American Chestnut.
“I’ll never see one this big. You’ll never see one this big.” She said, “But maybe our grandchildren will.”
And that was my favorite moment of Trail Days.
TGAW 
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