American Chestnut Tree Discovered in Chattahoochee National Forest
| What happened to the American Chestnut tree? It was wiped out by blight from a fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. The fungus was first discovered in Bronx Zoological Park, Bronx, NY in 1904 and spread throughout the entire range of the American chestnut reaching our mountains and destroying most mature tress by 1930s and just about all by the 1950s. The fungus was introduced by Japanese Chestnut trees imported into the United States in the late 1800’s. |
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There are two organizations working to restore the American chestnut to the forest: the American Chestnut Cooperators’ Foundation (ACCF) and the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF). The ACCF intercrosses 100% American chestnut trees selected for native resistance to the blight and seeks to develop a tree with natural resistance. The ACF has been working on breeding hybrids of American and Chinese chestnut trees since 1983. Trees are selected from each generation based on their ability to resist the fungus and have the characteristics of the American chestnut. The early hybrids were 50% American and 50% Chinese chestnut. Today there are trees that are 94% American. The goal is to have trees with no Chinese chestnut characteristics except resistance to the blight.
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