| Description |
The beautiful Castanea dentata, American Chestnut tree was once known as the "King of the Forest" in the Eastern half of North America. It's broad distribution ranged from Georgia to Maine and as far west as the Ohio Valley. This tree was an important component in the ecosystem of hardwood forest and sometime in the very early 1900's a human introduced an Asian fungus,(Endothia parasitica), which quickly killed approximately 99.9 percent of the species. By the 1950's only an estimated 100 trees remained of the original estimated four billion tree population which was the cornerstone of our Eastern Hardwood forest.
Through some fellow Botanists and avid Naturalists as well as the American Chestnut Foundation's research we have received young, healthy, professionally selected and so far disease free American Chestnut trees to grow out. The semi-mature and mature specimens from which the seed came from are so far disease free which is promising, but does not guarantee that any of the young plants will endure blight affected areas. We must continue to plant young plants of this species to hopefully find the native genetics that will be resistant to the Blight. It is our hope that you will join us and many others in taking a chance to re-establish this Natural Heritage Tree.
Join us and fellow Botanists, Naturalists, and The American Chestnut Foundation in helping to bring back this American Heritage species back from the grips of extinction.
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