Native Tree/Plant Plight

[Woolly Bugger]

To save chestnut trees, we may have to 'play God'
�Four billion American chestnut trees were killed by a deadly fungus. In the quest for its revival, can scientists learn to build a better tree?


By the time Rex Mann was old enough to work in the forests of Appalachia, they were full of the dead.

"We called them gray ghosts," the now 77-year-old retired forester says of the American chestnut tree scattered throughout his former North Carolina home and still towering over the forest floors.

They were skeletal remains of majestic trees that once grew to be as much as 100 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Over the course of the 20th century, an estimated four billion of them, one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing in Appalachia, were killed by an Asian fungus accidentally imported in the late 19th century. It's considered one of the worst environmental disasters to strike North America—and also a preview.

Emerald ash borer, sudden oak death, Dutch elm disease, oak wilt disease, walnut canker, hemlock woolly adelgid—in a globalizing world, many trees are facing pandemics of their own. And now climate change, with its catastrophic droughts, floods, and heat waves, is making it especially difficult to fight off attackers. Even Joshua trees, icons of the southwestern desert, are finding that the world is too warm.

All this has led some scientists to ask: Can we build better trees, ones that are more able to cope? And here again the American chestnut may soon set a precedent—this time on the path to resurrection. By tweaking its DNA, scientists say, they've created a blight-resistant tree that's ready for a second act. If it works for the American chestnut, perhaps it can work for other similarly afflicted trees.

"Some people say, 'You're playing God,' " says Allen Nichols, president of the New York chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. "What I say is: We've been playing the devil for ages, so we need to start playing God, or we're going to start losing a whole mess of stuff."


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/genetically-modified-american-chestnut-trees-conservation

[Woolly Bugger]

The D.C. Region's Ash Trees Are Dying Off.
This Project Is Documenting The Few Groves Still Living

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Aerial view of ash forest devastation at Mattawoman Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River.

The clock is ticking for the few healthy ash tree groves still in existence around D.C.

Twenty years ago an invasive pest arrived in the area, hidden away inside a shipment of ash trees headed for a nursery in Maryland. Since then, most of the ash forests in the area have been decimated by the pest, known as the emerald ash borer.

The loss of these trees is having a devastating impact on wetland ecosystems in the region.

"They're really important ecologically," says Gabe Popkin, a science writer based in Mount Rainier, Md. "As they die, there's only a tiny handful of trees that can potentially take their place."

For more than three years, Popkin and photographer Leslie Brice have been visiting local ash forests in the D.C. region to document the decline of the trees.

It started with a canoe trip in the summer of 2019. Popkin and Brice were paddling Mattawoman Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, when they came around a bend and were confronted by a forested wetland filled with dead trees.

"I didn't know what it was," recalls Brice. At first she wondered if it could be saltwater intrusion — rising sea level killing trees unaccustomed to salty ocean water. But they were too far inland.

https://wamu.org/story/23/05/08/dc-area-ash-forests-dying/

[Woolly Bugger]

America's Iconic Beech Trees Are Under Attack
The number of states with trees battling beech leaf disease tripled from 2019 to 2022. It is especially common in trees around Lake Erie, where the disease turned up in half of the beeches studied.

Lovers often carve their initials in the smooth gray bark of beech trees. Now those beloved trees—which can reach nearly 40 meters tall, live up to 400 years and are among the most abundant forest trees in the Northeast and Midwestern U.S.—are increasingly threatened by beech leaf disease.

In 2012, a Greater Cleveland naturalist noticed odd, dark, leathery stripes between some veins of a few beech leaves. Since then, beech leaf disease has spread faster and faster around the lower Great Lakes and the Northeast, ravaging one of the region's most vital trees.

In 2019, the disease was found in four states and Ontario. And by 2022, as both the disease and its detection rose, it spread to 12 states, plus Ontario and the District of Columbia.

"'22 was the wakeup call for any dismissiveness," Robert Marra of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station said.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062023/beech-trees-threatened-disease/

[Woolly Bugger]

Does Restoring the American Chestnut Require Greater Risk Than Reward?

Before the mid-20th century, the American chestnut tree used to dominate the East Coast of the United States. The American chestnut, reaching staggering heights of 150 feet, was known as the redwood of the East 1  and played an equally pivotal role ecologically and socially as their West Coast counterparts. Early Native American tribes used the tree 2  as a medicinal and food source, and early Appalachian communities harvested chestnuts, using it for both their own food and their livestock's food. 3 Moreover, tannins from the wood were used for leather processing 4  and the rot-resistant wood built the foundations of 19th- and 20th-century homes. Ecologically, the American chestnut was a dominant tree of its Appalachian range, with researchers estimating the tree compromised 25 to 50 percent 5  of forest cover in its range.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/am/restoring-the-american-chestnut/

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Does Restoring the American Chestnut Require Greater Risk Than Reward?

Before the mid-20th century, the American chestnut tree used to dominate the East Coast of the United States. The American chestnut, reaching staggering heights of 150 feet, was known as the redwood of the East 1  and played an equally pivotal role ecologically and socially as their West Coast counterparts. Early Native American tribes used the tree 2  as a medicinal and food source, and early Appalachian communities harvested chestnuts, using it for both their own food and their livestock's food. 3 Moreover, tannins from the wood were used for leather processing 4  and the rot-resistant wood built the foundations of 19th- and 20th-century homes. Ecologically, the American chestnut was a dominant tree of its Appalachian range, with researchers estimating the tree compromised 25 to 50 percent 5  of forest cover in its range.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/am/restoring-the-american-chestnut/

I am not sure I know anything about genetically engineered or modified organisms.  Intentionally I've forgotten what little I knew after making a D in a 4-hour genetics class in the late 70s; I dislike the subject. 

BUT, when it comes to monkeying with genes, I get a tad leery.

As an outsider with little or no familiarity with the tree or blight, it seems to me the safest approach would be to focus research efforts on the "natural" blight resistance found in some trees.  This organization is doing just that.

https://www.accf-chestnut.org/

Dr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 

[vtfor]

Dr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 

I hate to hear this about Dr. Griffin. He always struck me as a real gentleman. I took his class around '08 or '09. Coincidentally, it was around the same time I was trying not to forget about the milkweed bugs in a cup and on top of the refrigerator for another course with all my "extra curricular" activities.

He found out I liked to fish and delayed the start of one of his lectures considerably just to show me the slides of him fishing Alaska when he had research up there when he was just starting out. Throughout the semester he would mention that he was going to see his momma after and we all thought that family had some strong genes.

It was a few years after I graduated and I contacted him about the location of a tree that they collected chestnuts off of to try and do what you previously mentioned. He was nice enough to share the location of the "Amherst Tree." I was grateful to him for being able to visit the tree and it was still something to see even though storm damage had taken out some of the top.

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Dr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 

I hate to hear this about Dr. Griffin. He always struck me as a real gentleman. I took his class around '08 or '09. Coincidentally, it was around the same time I was trying not to forget about the milkweed bugs in a cup and on top of the refrigerator for another course with all my "extra curricular" activities.

He found out I liked to fish and delayed the start of one of his lectures considerably just to show me the slides of him fishing Alaska when he had research up there when he was just starting out. Throughout the semester he would mention that he was going to see his momma after and we all thought that family had some strong genes.

It was a few years after I graduated and I contacted him about the location of a tree that they collected chestnuts off of to try and do what you previously mentioned. He was nice enough to share the location of the "Amherst Tree." I was grateful to him for being able to visit the tree and it was still something to see even though storm damage had taken out some of the top.

Milkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 

[vtfor]

Milkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 

It certainly was bugs in a cup with the class you mentioned. I can't remember the one instructor, but I do happen to remember the name Hiner.

[Mudwall Gatewood 3.0]

Milkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 

It certainly was bugs in a cup with the class you mentioned. I can't remember the one instructor, but I do happen to remember the name Hiner.

Hiner, what a prick!  I feel certain he remains a prick.

[Woolly Bugger]

Mature American Chestnut trees found in Tribal Reserve


During the summer of 2021, Tribal Reserve was surveyed for reproductively mature American chestnut (Tilĭ΄, Castanea dentata) trees. The survey supports a larger collaborative effort between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Natural Resources Department and The American Chestnut Foundation to restore this culturally significant tree to the Qualla Boundary (see the Cherokee One Feather Oct. 12, 2020 edition for more information about this collaboration). The Cherokee people have had a relationship with Tilĭ for thousands of years—a relationship that continues today with the making of chestnut bread every fall (though, Chinese chestnuts, Castanea mollissima, have mostly replaced American chestnuts in the recipe).

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The tallest, mature American chestnut found in Tribal Reserve towers into the forest canopy. (Photo by Jaime Van Leuven)

https://theonefeather.com/2023/06/20/mature-american-chestnut-trees-found-in-tribal-reserve/

[Woolly Bugger]

[Woolly Bugger]

Crews cut down giant chestnut tree Puyallup neighbors say was more than 100 years old

It wasn't just a tree to Jon Palo. It was a piece of Puyallup Valley history. He and other neighbors near Stewart Elementary School were alarmed Thursday when crews with heavy equipment felled the giant chestnut tree on the school's playground. The 73-year-old said he's lived across from the school for more than 40 years. A framed photo of the tree, taken by neighbor Dianna Hamilton in the '80s, hangs in his home.

Read more at: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/puyallup-herald/ph-news/article278387149.html#storylink=cpy

[trout-r-us]

Crews cut down giant chestnut tree Puyallup neighbors say was more than 100 years old


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It wasn't just a tree to Jon Palo. It was a piece of Puyallup Valley history. He and other neighbors near Stewart Elementary School were alarmed Thursday when crews with heavy equipment felled the giant chestnut tree on the school's playground. The 73-year-old said he's lived across from the school for more than 40 years. A framed photo of the tree, taken by neighbor Dianna Hamilton in the '80s, hangs in his home.

Read more at: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/puyallup-herald/ph-news/article278387149.html#storylink=cpy

"After following appropriate tree removal protocols with the city, the district removed the tree from the playground area due to it being a prolonged health risk to students with life-threatening allergies to tree nuts," the statement said.

Really? Who new? I guess if that's true, the world will be a safer place when they're all gone.

[trout-r-us]

When I read of Chesnut trees, my mind always wanders back to my school days.
I still have memories of the nuns drilling this one into our heads.😁

"Under a spreading chestnut-tree
     ⁠The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
     With large and sinewy hands,
And the muscles of his brawny arms
     Are strong as iron bands."
.................
..........
..........

https://poets.org/poem/village-blacksmith

[Woolly Bugger]

The American chestnut tree is coming back. Who is it for?
As federal agencies prepare to deregulate transgenic chestnuts, Indigenous nations are asserting their rights to access and care for them.

When Neil Patterson Jr. was about 7 or 8 years old, he saw a painting called "Gathering Chestnuts," by Tonawanda Seneca artist Ernest Smith. Patterson didn't realize that the painting showed a grove of American chestnuts, a tree that had been all but extinct since his great-grandparents' time. Instead, what struck Patterson was the family in the foreground: As a man throws a wooden club to knock chestnuts from the branches above, a child shells the nuts and a woman gathers them in a basket. Even the dog seems engrossed in the process, watching with head cocked as the club sails through the air.

Patterson grew up on the Tuscarora Nation Reservation just south of Lake Ontario near Niagara Falls. The painting reminded him of his elders teaching him to harvest black walnuts and hickories.

"I think, for me, it wasn't about the tree, it was about a way of life," said Patterson, who today is in his 40s, with silver-flecked dark hair and kids of his own. He sounded wistful.

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https://grist.org/indigenous/transgenic-american-chestnut-indigenous-rights/