Legacy of the American Chestnut: Survival Amidst Blight
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- This video highlights the historical significance and decline of the American Chestnut tree due to chestnut blight introduced in the early 20th century. It also celebrates the existence of some of the largest remaining specimens in the United States, emphasizing efforts to preserve these majestic trees.
Organic chestnut farmer, Chris Foster of Cascadia Chestnuts in Portland, Oregon, shares some of his first-hand knowledge about the American chestnut tree, and its unique place in our history.
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The largest chestnut tree in Michigan is on the grounds of Prudential Nursery in Vicksburg, MI. Hit by lightning some 15 years ago, it survived the strike and is still going strong.
Bout 18 years ago I went on an estimate to some dumpy house near the river on a dead end road. I'm a landscaper and they failed to mention it was for bulldozer work so it was a wasted trip. While their I noticed massive chunks of wood from a tree. Were talking 4 feet thick sections and when I asked about that. They informed me that was nothing you should see the back yard. The sections I saw were branches of a chestnut tree that was 7 feet thick. I'm In CT thats almost unheard of. The main trunk was still standing about 15 feet tall they had issues cutting it someone had patched the tree long ago by filling the hollow spot with cement. They said it was that or the house the tree was crushing the home and so they cut it down. I shook my head and said I think you choose the wrong thing to take down and left for home.
I could have gone my whole life and not heard that...
But 7 ft thick boards???
I heard they were giants from our ancient forrest !!!
I live in Michigan's lower peninsula. I have found Chestnut trees growing in the woods near our Cottage. They are still fairly young and I have not found a parent tree. But I'm excited to see them
There’s a high chance it’s actually a Chinese hybrid, but I hope not!
I’ve heard stories of the root systems of some trees surviving and continuing to put up root suckers for decades after the initial collapse. Hopefully it’s full genetic of American chestnut but like the person before me stated, it’s not likely. Hopefully so though.
usually they will grow but when they hit a certain height they'll get infected
how are they looking now? do you have pictures? if C. Dentata, any thought of making rootballs to sell? via cuttings?
Chestnut trees live forever in the roots, which don't get the fungus, the saplings grow up to about 10 or 15 feet and when the bark matures it died and a new one grows.
I planted a 31/32 American chestnut (“revival” from Stark nurseries) on the grounds of the Amoco Tulsa Research Center about 1997. It came as a little stick. I planted a male and a female but only the female survived.
That campus is now the Schusterman health science center, a branch of OU, but the tree was still there that last time I passed through Tulsa in 2017.
The tree tries to make Chestnuts but with no male it just makes empty green spike balls.
I have at least 8 of these trees! I’m not done exploring but they sure are beautiful and so many of the green spiky balls! Thanks for the video. I’m learning!
I think there is a viable argument that the Native American chestnut trees that seem to be resisting blight the longest also have a soil ecosystem that is based on mutuality. That is to say surrounding plants and microorganisms are giving some protection to the trees resisting the fungus. Long as we looked at the American chestnut completely removed and isolated from the ecosystem around it it will be harder to come up with a solution that's not biotech. But if we look at a holistic system the odds go up significantly.
Love the intelligence to acknowledge that it is older than "america". It's Native 😎👍🏼
@@chickennugget6233 what was this Continent called before it was the Americas?
@@mik3ymomo turtle island
@@mik3ymomoThe natives had a word for it, For us it translated to "Turtle Island", but if only it wasn't for all those invaders burning, destroying, and cleansing of any culture, writings, and languages.
History is written by the winner, and also burned.
And when the winners lie and cheat and backstab their way to power, it's kinda hard to believe their side or the story, meanwhile, the other side is dead, because you didn't want their side of the story to be heard, to build the narrative yourself.
It's why the racists shout "we will not be replaced"
These people fear that what they do, how they act and behave, will be used against them.
Kinda like: You know you're a murderous killer, and you don't want anyone else to find out, and you certainly don't want others doing what you do against you or your family.
"Rules, consequences and punishment for thee, but not for me"😂
The religious mentality.
@@RSAgility interesting narrative but let me ask you this. If winners write the history and the losers silent in death. How do you know there is lying involved? Also you say the racist proclaims “we will not be replaced” but then you also say “preserve culture”. So are you saying only preserve non white cultures? Who’s the racist exactly?
You seem to be full of hypocrisy with your ideologies. It makes perfect sense too you though right?
I grew up about a hundred miles south of the range of these chestnuts. That may be why the a beautiful one down the street from where I lived survived so long. I suspect that was because there were so few of its kin to spread the blight around. It died, however, while I was in college, roughly in the early 1970s. I'm delighted to see them returning.
so the blight is in oregon now?
I love Chestnut Trees. They hold so many Memories of childhood, one in particular. As a young Girl, my sister & friends would play on a College Campus in the Northeast of PA where my Dad worked. Our favorite place to ride our Bikes was a huge expanse of a rolling, green Grove lined by the large, red brick Administrative Buildings. The upper Tier of the Grove was heavily shaded from rows upon rows of gigantic Chestnut Trees. This area above, before it softly stepped down into the acre of green lawn, had no buildings but instead its perimeter was lined by woods and thick bramble. Hidden a few 100 yards in from the edge of the Grove, appeared a Folly, a flat and roofless marble stoned patio lined with Greek Columns. There were wooden cross bars stretched across the column & formed a trellis where old grape vines grew. It had a haunted feeling as the stone floor & columns were layered with moss and dead vines of Ivy and being in the middle of thick woods, it seemed to just appear out of nowhere. We spent many hours making up play stories with this Folly as a Prop. Over the years it became a sort of "Right of Passage" ritual for as Kids, we felt it required a bit of bravery to go to this spooky place to collect the "treasure" of Chestnuts. We never lost our amazement at the large lime green balls of spikes heavily littered on the ground. We would all pretend we were stealing "Fairy Food" because there were so many local Folk tales connected to that place easily believed by gullible 7 yr olds. In the Fall afternoon on our way out from the wooded Folly with the chill of the deep shade darkening the Grove, we would scramble about tossing the large, lime green Spiky Balls into the bags we had secured to our handlebars and made off like Bandits, our fears quickly escalating as fast as the sun was fading and spreading from one another. Even as Adults, when a few of us recount that memory, we still associate Chestnuts with a feeling of awe and Magic. We were sadly informed a few years back that the Grove, surrounding woods and Folly have long been replaced by "growth & expansion" of the Campus and the loss of all those magnificent Chestnuts felt like a Crime had been committed. Rumor made it worse stating that those Trees had not all been affected by the blight either and were taken down far before their natural end. The loss of America's Chestnut Trees is a great one and I don't think there is any delicacy more delicious than a freshly roasted Chestnut with a warm pot of Assam Tea and honey on a cold afternoon. Never do I eat one and not recount that memory of childhood.
I'm not buying this story. Chestnuts were gone from Pennsylvania by the 1920s' or at most 1930s
@@hyzercreek well it’d be a good thing no one asked you then eh? 😂
Thanks for sharing!
I don't know what you do for a living, but it should include writing novels, you tell a story so elegant.
About 4-5 years back, my son and I ran into some information about near extinction of American Chestnut Tree to Blight and he wanted to grow some. So I got a source for some seed (American Chestnuts are way smaller compare to the Chinese Chestnut you usually see in your local Grocery stores). Our success rate of seed germination was pretty good, but we eventually managed to keep 2 out of 4 alive. They are still growing in our backyard (Extremely slow grower) and strangely one growing Twice the rate of the other (despite similar growing condition). I do have them in a spot near some large trees (so shade and large tree's root stealing nutrient probably contributing largely to the growth rate). But seeing such a large American Chestnut put me to a state of awe!! So much want to see Tree that size (hopefully I live to 160 years to see my tree grow to that size!!!) :D
for chestnuts to grow they need to be away from the mother tree with full sun not shaded by the bigger tree at all,so they need space
You are the first one talking about living to 150 years outside of myself.
You have an awsome relationship with your son 🧡
@@chickennugget6233 Thank you! Watching him grow up like watching me grow up! But as time passes, table is turning and I'm the one most of the time asking him questions :D
where can U buy Achest SEEDS ?
Have you read "The Overstory"? It is a novel about trees and, among other things, chestnut trees.
That's what brought me here 😁
Tim Sweeney has the largest chestnut tree restoration program in the US going on in NC.
Yes, it is - but work is being done to bring them back. Hopefully they will succeed. They are grand ladies!
I would like to get some Natives in the ground here in Michigan. Even if 99% died I would plant more.
@@djpickle68 contact the American Chesnut Foundation and they will work with you for doing just that. I am starting in the Adirondacks.
Y is NO one propagating these trees ?
It is - magnificent
My father said his father brought home wild chestnuts 1920s or so Kansas river uplands...
All the ones here in the flint hills region just absolutely wiped out. I usually scour the woodlands for morels during springtime where the blue and the Kansas converge
Why would anybody give this a "Thumbs Down?"
Because he's wrong about lots of stuff. The American Chestnut was more than just 30% of the forests in the east, on top of everything else.
@@I_leave_mean_comments true
likely America hater
@@I_leave_mean_comments What I heard him say was that 30% percent was NOT chestnut trees... could be an uuuhhh (to think) idk but sounded like a "not" to me
Thankfully they are making a come back.
not American
@@urbanothepopeofdeath Some teams of researchers are working on genetically modifying blight-resistant American chestnut trees, and I believe at least one independent guy is growing American chestnut trees and selectively breeding the ones that best fight off the blight. I think we could see this as man-made evolution rather than a creation of a different species because the goal is to create a blight-resistant tree that is as close as possible to the original. Though I do agree that the ones breeding American chestnut trees with Chinese chestnut trees aren't creating blight-resistant American chestnut trees, they're creating a hybrid that I don't think should be released into the wild.
@@cheeseburger8486 it was my understanding that they need a certain % of the chinese type for the resistance and the nut isn't nearly as good eating. I had about 2 dozen shipped to me (nuts) to plant. It was way too much work for me (to keep the animals out) so after getting them to be about 2 feet high I gave them to a local nursery and he was going to give it a try. This was thru the Amercan Chestnut Society. I am in the Adirondacks.
@@urbanothepopeofdeath There is apparently a team splicing genes rather than breeding, which is much more precise. They take the blight-resistant genes from the Chinese species and splice it with the American species, I think this is much better than simply breeding a hybrid because you have more control over which genes are represented.
nice video.
In the UK we call them sweet chestnut and those are the ones you can eat (as opposed to horse chestnut.) Interesting you say about the settlers bringing seeds or saplings, the Romans (2k years ago or so) did the same and planted them in the south of England!
the uk Sweet Chestnut is a different species (castanea sativa) to the American (castanea dentata)
The American Chestnut is a different species, considered by many to be the best and most majestic of all Chestnut trees, that is until the Blight massacred nearly all of them.
In some forests in France, they are the most common tree and yes, they can be over 800 years old and very large and wide.
i think spanish chestnuts are also called sweet chestnut. ?
@@jonmakay1537 Yes “Spanish Chestnut” is just another name for Sweet or European Chestnut: Castanea sativa.
I've found 3 very old American chestnut trees still living. 1 is in Webster NY and the other 2 are right on Main St in the town of Waterloo NY. They are amazing trees even though they show the battle scars of the blight.
I'd love to grow chestnut trees, but which type is best 90%/10% approx hybrids of the ones with the inserted gene from wheat ... I'd even grow both types on the 40 acres I'm trying to buy, but there needs to be a report by the American Chestnut Association grading these trees for different areas ... all I keep hearing is more research is going on.
would you be interested in sending a seed or 3? Makay
Abundance for humanity
We have a chestnut tree here in Washington state at Wright Park we have a Japanese chestnut tree and American chestnut tree and mini horse chestnut trees it’s not very well-known so I am keeping it a secret for now so hopefully not too many people will see my comment LOL I hope they come back because they are delicious and it unless at a farm they’re really hard to find
I know where that's at , i'll be there early this year, ;)
How i can buy his seed?
Japanese chestnut trees brought the Blight.
My hometown had a park full of chestnut trees. There had to about 3 dozen, huge trees. I remember they all died in about 2 years at the same time.
There are mature American Chestnut trees growing in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and maybe Iowa?
I knew of a farm that had a dozen nice trees. The land changed hands and removed the trees to build a machine shed.
Yeah that's actually true, i think the people who make these videos just aren't aware that they are indeed isolated pockets of American Chestnut Trees throughout the U.S. that actually survived the blight and have over the past 75 years have actually grown greater resistance to disease including that fungus. The main problem at this point is that 90% of the American Chestnut previous territory that it occupied before the blight has been filled in by competitive species of trees so even though there are now American Chestnut Trees that have acquired immunity they are not able to replenish the extremely vast area they used to cover in North America unless people start putting forth an effort to reseed these trees in as many areas of the trees previous territorial range which is immense. We do NOT need a transgenically manipulated version that would cause genetic contamination of the natural stock that has already adapted itself and is now more resistant and a gmo version would also put the organic chestnut farmers out of business which would be a tragedy considering that the naturally adapted resistant seed and saplings are now available. Ty Ty Nursery in Georgia sells both the seed and saplings that were grown from the rediscovered isolated, immune clusters of original American Chestnut Trees. These can be used to bring back the species to it's former glory but only if people help do their part by planting as many of the new resistant saplings as the can. I'm definitely going to be part of that effort!
We had one of the last dead standing ones in our yard it was well over a hundred fifty' tall.
The Overstory brought me here. 🌳
Here in Michigan there are still some pure C dental surviving and they're not hybrids.
Y’all might want to check Puyallup Washington. There’s one at the beginning of the old on-ramp to 167 valley freeway. They harvest the nuts every fall
Took a trip with class to study plant ID in NC mountains. I remember our forestry instructor showing us all the long dead and fallen chestnut trees. The wood is very rot resistant.
black cherry wood takes forever to rot too had this huge limb fall down from a black cherry tree in the woods and the wood still looks unrotted all the bark is gone
@@blakespower Black Cherry has fine wood and is used in cabinets and flooring. It smells of transmission fluid green. The leaves are poisonous to livestock.
Came here to learn about chesnut trees after starting Overstory
Chestnut blight is usually named as the chief cause of the near disappearance of chestnut trees from US eastern forests. Phytophthora was not mentioned much because it is not as specific a plant pathogen as chestnut blight.
it also does not get as far north, IIRC. It can't take the northeastern winters
I've seen a similar tree to this one on an old farm house property in Maine. There are a few near it not as big.
I found two 60 ft American chestnut trees that are probably 80 years old. No sign of blight and they produce a lot of burs with nuts
So are these living chestnut trees immune to the blight and if not why are they alive.We need a johnny appleseed planting chestnut trees all around again
Not immune to the root disease.
Several years ago I went to 2 locations I west Michigan. One location had 7 chestnuts, the other 3. The story I got was that they were isolated from chestnuts that had been blighted and thus were not exposed. Possibly that is the case with other surviving chestnut trees.
They are alive because the blight has not reached their area. Like the 1800s chestnuts were alive because the blight was still in Asia. They weren't immune, the blight was just not around. If you had people from, say, Virginia homestead in Minn in the 1800s, and took seeds from home for the trees... the blight might have hit a firebreak in , say WI, if it could not find chestnuts to infect, so it stopped spreading. The MN trees are past the firebreak. Hence the Pacific Northwest trees, or Canadian pockets.
I have one of those trees in my backyard
I live in pa and as a kid I helped some guy pollinate American chestnut trees he had a few still alive on his property and was running a breeding operation I think he was helping maybe pennstate University he had hundreds planted on his place and they were targeting resistance to the blight I still find em here in the mtns but they only live so long it seems like they fruit a year or so then die
Awesome
When I was a kid growing up in WV I couldn't walk past a Chestnut tree without eating a raw Chestnut, granted there weren't many trees but there was a few around producing nuts.
Wowwwwww beautiful
슈카월드 보고 왔습니다. 이게 고유 미국밤나무군요~ 근데 똑같아 보임~
Do you know where the largest tree is on Edy road in Sherwood, Or. Do you know the address of where this tree is ??
Dude looks like Art Garfunkel
Where in sherwood? We live nearby.
I'm pretty sure american and european chestnuts are 2 different species, so they can't really be 1000 years old in europe, unless the vikings brought them over.
WeRbananas the romans brought them.
American chestnuts are different but can pollinate european chestnuts
They will not disappear they will fill the land as centuries ago
If anyone knows of where I could acquire any chestnut seedlings,, I would surly appreciate it!
Twisted Tree Farm sells chestnut seedlings (or seeds). Check them out. They ship in the fall. Hybrid American varieties as well as other stuff. The ones i got from them are growing very well
As many kinds the chestnut is a tree of life
Island of Pitcairn has a great condition for revitalisation of the American Chestnuts..
Great soil, no bugs or animals to eat em, entirely different soil..
Why hasnt anyone considered planting few seeds there?
Because it's not native there?
Planting is not the problem. there are plenty of still living American Chestnut. The problem is there are no MATURE American Chestnut in their native range. The blight gets them before they can mature and everything above the blight dies while the root still lives and is viable...This creates an never ending cycle where the tree is effectively extinct yet not genetically extinct. The only mature trees are in non natural habitats where the blight fungus has not been established YET. Once the blight is established it lives in Oak bark so it can never be exterminated and American Chestnut will never reach maturity near them. The only possible solution is to genetically modify American Chestnut to be blight resistant, then wait two centuries to get massive mature (canopy grade) trees.
Chestnuts are native to a temperate climate with warm and cold seasons.
@@MichaelSmith-xb5cp or idiots can terraform islands @ NATURAL locations
Can pigs eat horse chestnut, as far as I know the horse chestnut is crap
China has caused endless troulble
I'm no foreigner fanboy, but it was an American nursery that imported the Asian chestnut trees here....that was responsible for the blight Einstein.
I've seen them grow to about 20feet tall and 6 to 8 inches in diameter. Then they die
Has this tree survived because it’s resistant to the blight or because it’s out of the contaminated range
It's probably survived for a combination of reasons, one, possibly being more resistant to the blight itself. But also, what makes these trees susceptible in the first place is their close proximity together so the disease can easily spread. A similar problem has existed with oak and pine trees that often grow or are planted together in large numbers. Nature favors biodiversity; it's its own form of insurance against disease and other natural afflictions.
Maybe unknown.
the fungus can infect oak as well so probably some resistance.
I got a chestnut tree that's bigger than that one.
Give me one seed :3
I understand a mostly American chestnut tree is making a return to American forests. Its been crossed with Asian chestnut trees and is blight resistant.
I dont see any sold in nurseries, you have to join the American Chestnut Foundation like membership 200 a year just to get some seeds its all a scam!
So many die offs throughout that period including the red squirrel and pigeon migrations.
Are yhey cloning these
"maybe" someday trees are in museum's
Did he mean he saw 1000 year old chestnut trees in Europe or just thousand years old trees? The US has bristlecone pine that’s over a thousand years old and I believe the sequoias are several thousand years old.
European chestnut.
one of the saddest things in history to happen to our ecology topping dutch elm disease and the passenger pigeon in my opinion
Wood production? I have NEVER heard of Chestnut as a lumber. Red Oak, White Oak, Walnut, Cherry, Maple, but not Chestnut.
maybe in the east.
!
I have an produ ing American Chestnut Tree that is over 50 feet tall and at least 50 feet wide
then U should be planting them
Beautiful trees......shame
why does every American Chestnut Video have to give the same history report ?
I am seeking American chestnut, confirmed seeds or trees. from a diversity of locations. to create source mixed forests. hit me up
try ebay some years they sell them there. Usually around harvest time between september and november, assuming you live in the states, but make sure they are freshly harvested and not dunstan chestnuts, that is a hybrid. you will know because the American chestnuts NUTS are really tiny compared to all the other chestnut species, I bought some from someone that lived in Michigan a few years back. they planted them there also as people moved west so its not their native range but they escaped the blight so far
Y is NO ONE propagating these trees ? U think 100s would be planted yrly
They are. Go to American Chestnut Foundation and you can buy seedlings to plant yourself. I live in a townhouse now but plan on moving in the next few years and will buy at least 20 acres. I am planning on growing some American Chestnut trees and hope they can survive.
Humans wiped out the American Chestnut tree
So why dont we have something in todays day and age that can wipe out the blight? and restore this tree back to helth again
The history is very sad with what happened to these trees.
Pretty vague and tentative about his "facts".
TO SAY THE LEAST!
retvrn
For wood production, "I believe?"... You start out with that as a lead-in? You're kidding and I'm done with your video. WOULD YOU PLEASE edit it and give a video to those 'wanting' ears????!!! For Pete's sake!!
I.e. the guy narrating 'thinks'? --He doesn't KNOW? That's no way to start a video for people who are already in the know on the Wonderful American Chestnut and its' STORY!!
This chesnut is not big I shoot a video from my vilage in Hellas have 2 chesnuts is many many years old.stay tuned
❤السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته أسمع بارك الله أنشر بقناتك القرآن الكريم والأشياء يستفيد منه الناس مثل أنشر بقناتك كيف نعمل صدقة جارية يعني نزرع أشجار في أماكن يستفيد منه الناس نزرع أشجار في الحدائق وفي الشوارع وفي طريق الناس وفي أبواب المساجد وفي الأسواق نعم بالله عليك أنشر بقناتك من فضلك ليجعله الله لك صدقه جارية وأسأل الله لك التوفيق والنجاح والنجاة والسلام وأن يجعل حسابك مع الحبيب خاتم الأنبياء والمرسلين قائد الإسلام والمسلمين محمد الأمين صلى الله عليه وسلم تسليم ومع أصحابه الصالحين عمر أبن الخطاب وأبو بكر الصديق وبلال وخالد أبن وليد وهناك كثير منهم رضي الله عنهم أجمعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين والحمدلله رب العالميين والسلام على الأنبياء والمرسلين والملائكة والمسلمين والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته ❤👍أحبك في الله لئنك مسلم ❤السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته أسمع بارك الله أنشر بقناتك القرآن الكريم والأشياء يستفيد منه الناس مثل أنشر بقناتك كيف نعمل صدقة جارية يعني نزرع أشجار في أماكن يستفيد منه الناس نزرع أشجار في الحدائق وفي الشوارع وفي طريق الناس وفي أبواب المساجد وفي الأسواق نعم بالله عليك أنشر بقناتك من فضلك ليجعله الله لك صدقه جارية وأسأل الله لك التوفيق والنجاح والنجاة والسلام وأن يجعل حسابك مع الحبيب خاتم الأنبياء والمرسلين قائد الإسلام والمسلمين محمد الأمين صلى الله عليه وسلم تسليم ومع أصحابه الصالحين عمر أبن الخطاب وأبو بكر الصديق وبلال وخالد أبن وليد وهناك كثير منهم رضي الله عنهم أجمعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين والحمدلله رب العالميين والسلام على الأنبياء والمرسلين والملائكة والمسلمين والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته ❤👍أحبك في الله لئنك مسلم
Thank colonialism....
More like globalism.