Bringing back the American chestnut

HAWLEY, PA — There will be a presentation on the American chestnut and the American Chestnut Foundation’s program to bring back the tree from a deadly blight at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17 at the PPL Environmental Learning Center on Route 6. Robin Wildermuth, land manager at the Blooming Grove Hunting and Fishing Club and Josh Flad, forester at the Milford Experimental Forest will present the talk and slide show.

The American chestnut was once the dominant forest tree in many areas of the Poconos prior to 1910, when an Asian blight swept through the chestnut population, virtually wiping it out. Today, the chestnut exists as root sprouts in the understory and scattered smaller trees in the forest.

Early settlers relied on the chestnut for building, furniture, fence posts, fuel wood and edible nuts. It was a tremendous asset to wildlife habitat with consistent crops of highly nutritious wildlife food for bear, deer, turkeys, grouse and small mammals. The tree produces larger and more consistent nut crops than the oak and hickory species that have filled the void in many of the Appalachian forests where it once dominated. The loss of the chestnut had a devastating impact on the forest ecology, timber value and wildlife populations of the region.

For the past several decades, scientists and volunteers with the American Chestnut Foundation have pursued a breeding program to create a resistant line of chestnut. The presentation will cover the history of the chestnut blight, characteristics of the tree, wildlife interactions and the program the American Chestnut Foundation scientists have created to bring back the tree throughout its range, including local efforts in Pike County to locate and include local trees in the breeding program. The program is free.

For more information visit pikeconservation.org or call 570/226-8220.