By Tom Reynolds
The New Canaan Land Trust is collaborating with the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) to serve as a demonstration and educational planting site, showcasing the restoration work TACF is undertaking.
American Chestnut was once a dominant tree in CT, comprising 25%-40% of forests, depending on where you were. This would have made them as common as oak, beech, maple and hickory are today.
Starting around 1904, a blight from Asia began killing off the American Chestnut. By 1940, it is estimated that 4 billion trees died throughout their range from Maine to Mississippi. This devastation had a profoundly negative impact on Eastern forests and their ecosystems. Chestnut nuts, dense in calories, vitamin C and antioxidants, were an abundant source of food for wildlife, humans and livestock. It was a significant loss to the overall food chain. Similarly, the rot-resistant and straight-grained wood was used to build virtually everything. Lumber and forest product industries were impacted.
Today, American Chestnut is considered functionally extinct as a lumber and crop species, BUT the American Chestnut is not entirely extinct. The blight is unable to kill the underground root system. In a few places with favorable conditions, stump sprouts still grow from trees that died in the early 1900’s. Most only grow to shrub height before succumbing to the blight and dying. Fewer still reach 40’ – 50’ and may produce wild seeds before the blight kills them, too. This cycle of death and rebirth has kept the species barely alive. The NCLT has a 50-foot tree on the Browne Preserve. We have not seen nuts as there are no other trees to cross-pollinate with. While this seems tragically sad, one must admire the tenacity of these roots, which have been sending up shoots for over 100 years.
Enter The American Chestnut Foundation, whose mission is to develop a blight-resistant American chestnut tree through scientific research and breeding, and to restore the tree to its native range in the eastern United States. TACF has 16 chapters covering 20 states. The CT Chapter has 22 active “orchards” for different research and nut-producing purposes. The CT Chapter collaborates with the state, Land Trusts, and private landowners to plant chestnuts collected from wild American Chestnut trees in CT forests, as well as cross-bred and “improved” hybrid chestnut trees from their primary research facility in VA.
The New Canaan Land Trust has received and planted five nut trees. Two “improved” seeds from TACF’s Meadowood VA research farm, two from the CT Backcross Orchard in Salem CT, and one open-pollinated wild nut from the Appalachian region. All the nuts have sprouted and appear (knock wood) to be growing well. See the pictures below – or better yet – come see them for yourself at the Land Trust headquarters at the Grupes House at 1124 Valley Rd. New Canaan.
Board Member Tom Reynolds Preparing Chestnut Seedling after Planting
Chestnut Tree Before Planting
We’re delighted to partner with TACF in this restoration effort and look forward to planting more trees or an orchard in the future. The Land Trust protects its land “in perpetuity,” meaning it is protected forever. It is a fitting site to try to grow the once-iconic American Chestnut tree, whose restoration may take generations.
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