Elaine Ingram admires a purebred American chestnut clinging to survival on the Ingram’s land in Craig County. Such trees are rare.
In 1946, Nat King Cole recorded “The Christmas Song” with its memorable first lines: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” Of course, by then the tree that produces those nuts was in a dire state across the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Blight struck the American chestnut in 1904, and what was once this region’s predominant tree has now become merely an afterthought in terms of its numbers and its existence in these mountains. Once, though, this species produced good to excellent crops of nuts every year, which were vital to wildlife and the wood from these trees was used for everything from barrels to barns and abodes.
Blacksburg Virginia’s Carl Absher is a volunteer for The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) and says that a major objective of the organization is to create hybrids that combine a Chinese chestnut’s blight resistance with an American chestnut. The process involves backcrossing the Chinese chestnut with an America chestnut hybrid. The most blight resistant offspring are being planted in the East’s forests.
“Our mission has remained the same,” Absher says. “Restore this iconic tree to its historic range. Only now we have a more integrated approach incorporating the backcross breeding, genetic modification, and biologic agents. Our big push now is to find more of those survivors to incorporate into the program and increase the genetic diversity of the population of resistant trees.
“At this point in time, if anyone finds a fruiting American chestnut out in the woods they should consider themselves blessed. They should also download and use the TreeSnap app to record it in the national database so as to sure that their record is not lost.”
For more information: acf.org.
Bruce and Elaine Ingram will profile a different wild edible every month. For more information on their book Living the Locavore Lifestyle, contact them at bruceingramoutdoors@gmail.com.
