Rebirth of the American Chestnut as a Dominant Forest Species in Eastern North America

EECP Lecture Series
October 24, 2023
Scott Merkle, Professor of Forest Biology, UGA
"Rebirth of the American Chestnut as a Dominant Forest Species in Eastern North America"

[@johnnixon4085]

I lived for a time in a 1740s stone farm house in PA that had the original chestnut floor boards all through the house. They were over 2' wide.

[@rickmelcher1351]

Please forward to Scott Merkle, When II was in the Boy Scouts -late 1950's - early 1960's - There was a very large American Chestnut tree on Marshal island - just north of Treasure Island on the Delaware river in Bucks county. My Father said the only reason it had survived was because it was isolated from other trees and from the blight. Many offers were made to cut down the tree for furniture and were refused so the tree may still be there surviving. Perhaps you could find it and take pictures. I believe the diameter was about 48".

[@CormacHolland]

It could also have genes that make it immune to the blight, would be useful to do an analysis on that tree.

[@garyb.4080]

My Dad got an American chestnut sucker from a fallen tree in WV. , planted it in southern In. 45 years ago still going strong! Every year the squirrels planted the nuts in his yard , and they come up every year! They are much smaller than the Chinese nuts, and taste better!

[@brucedahms4508]

My grandfather had a chestnut tree stump on his farm that sent up suckers around it. When I was in the 5th or 6th grade, in the 1950s, I dug one up and tried growing it in the garden at our house. It grew for years and reached about 20 feet tall and even blossomed once before it developed the blight. We cut it down, and suckers started growing around the stump. We cut all but the best-looking ones, and they'd grow for 7 or 8 years before developing the blight. By then, of course, I had grown up and was living two states away, but my parents continued taking care of the chestnut tree.

[@RichardAHolt]

My family owns a house built in 1850 in Greeneville, Greene Co., TN. The beams under the first floor and visible in the basement are all debarked and unfinished American Chestnut logs.

[@JohnMartin-ze8cf]

Wow.....the best American chestnut video that I`ve seen....Thanks for all you`re doing to bring this remarkable tree back

[@williewonka6694]

Very interesting talk! I looked a 1740s farm in Pennsylvania. In the attic there was a door about 32" wide that was made from a single slab of Chestnut. Such a tree that must have been!

[@joescola7498]

Sorry 2nd comment. I saw a few American Chestnut trees in Lugano Switzerland in September. I almost cried it made me so happy to see them again.

[@judsonsomerville1767]

I remember as a kid, I am almost 63, my grandfather trying to save the chestnut trees in his yard on Euclid street in Salem, Ohio. I remember how sad there loss was to my grandfather. Too me also.

[@williewonka6694]

I'm 64, and as a kid, the nation's Elm trees were wiped out by Dutch Elm disease. Most of the Chestnuts were wiped out in the early 1900s, other than isolated pockets. Interestingly, many of the Chestnut roots are still alive. Small trees sprout for a few years from the roots before the blight kills them, but the roots live on.

[@Phelox]

My father also mourned the loss of Chestnut trees in our locale, in Alabama. He planted a Chinese Chestnut, the fruit of which we enjoyed many years.

[@williamtaylor4863]

This lecture was very informative. I am a farmer and have used GMO crops for over 20 years and approve of the science and the results. Yes, we must always be rigorous in testing and in selection, but it is a wonderful tool for combating disease pathogens and insects. Also, I have been planting Chestnut trees on our farm in North Mississippi, from TACF seeds and seedlings and also seedlings from resistant trees in Pennsylvania. Some of our trees are 12 feet tall and others are only one year old. It is a slow go, but I really enjoy the process. Thanks to Dr Merkle and the team at UGA for the work they are doing.

[@Justbetru]

You should look at some of the science that is not guided by profit. There are other ways to grow food that don’t require you to give increasingly more money to the big ag companies. Working with nature is much more efficient than fighting it.

[@user-xz9hu4rd2v]

I have never eaten ‘chestnuts’ before until visiting Assisi in Italy and bought some from a street vendor. I discovered these are the ‘castañas’ my Spanish grandfather used to give us as kids during Christmas. We just planted two chestnut trees in our yard.

[@pamtnman1515]

Every year for twenty years I have planted American chestnuts, Chinese chestnuts, and hybrid chestnuts across central and northcentral Pennsylvania. This tree is the future of our forests.

[@macrosense]

Have you tried anything with hybrid filberts/hazelnuts?

[@pamtnman1515]

⁠no i have not tried these species of nut trees. They are much more a southern species than a northern species, and our cold winters usually cull out these kinds of experiments. Chestnuts of all varieties, however, have a long history of thriving in cold climates. I’m most active in south central and Northcentral Pennsylvania, where winters get very cold ​@@macrosense

[@RovingPunster]

What's happening with the disease resistant cross development ?

[@pamtnman1515]

@@RovingPunster I think the process is a lot harder and taking a lot longer than originally anticipated. I plant a lot of chestnut nuts, mostly Chinese but also hybrids. They don’t always do well in the tree tubes, and without the tree tubes they get eaten by deer. I plant on steep banks to try to deter deer, and it rarely works. So I would say steel wire mesh fencing 24” across with two white oak stakes, which is expensive and time consuming. Nothing easy about this.

[@thomastrain7311]

My dream is a blight resistant chestnut tree with zero cross with Chinese chestnut. Two very different trees.

[@dougvanallen2212]

When we were kids in the winter my dad would bake chestnuts in the oven and we’d put some of those hot chestnuts in our pockets they would keep you warm and you had a nice snack for later in the day good times long ago

[@eatwhatukiii2532]

VERY INFORMATIVE, THANK YOU! ❤ I have been keeping an eye on the American Chestnut projects and hope to become involved in growing them someday.

[@1212plb]

Thank you soooo Much for your thorough insight on the American chestnut. I recently ( in the fall of 2023) purchased 50 American Chestnut seeds and plan on getting them started in the next month ( it January 29, 2024). I have a small farm , approximately 48 acres in middle/ eastern Tennessee, and would be glad to share my pictures and anything you would like for the growth of the American Chestnut. I come from a long line of loggers and outdoorsman, past down from my dad and grandfather. They taught me that the land gives as we give. Thanks you for the knowledge.

[@bill8985]

Great lecture! Yes, we need young people to join TACF! Not only because they are nimble - but because they will need to carry on the effort.

[@pamtnman1515]

young Americans don't join anything, because they are "citizens of the world" now. And they don't do anything except push buttons and caress the screens of their precious smart phones. All the cool stuff that prior generations started, like reviving the American chestnut, is going to come to a screeching halt when us older people die off. The young people will be looking for a phone application ("app") to create and plant American chestnuts so the young people don't have to do it themselves

[@mikeyfoofoo]

This was a fascinating lecture. Thank you! - There is a 30 ft Chestnut tree in my neighborhood. I'm on Shades Mountain in AL. I only know because it smells so bad when it flowers in the spring that I looked it up. I'd love to have the Chestnuts back, but I bet the smell was staggering with the giants we had 150 years ago!

[@vgil1278]

@mikeyfoofoo- There is only one other tree that I'm aware of, that smells bad when it blooms (Bradford pear). The chestnut tree is so much larger, the smell would be more of a problem.😝

[@jordangreen1538]

Absolutely fabulous work. Fabulous purpose and motivation. The benefits - if you succeed - will be immense. Thanks to all.

[@claypotter378]

In the town where I grew up, we had a Chestnut Lodge. It was the insane asylum for the area. Mom called it the Booby Hatch. Our local chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America grew out many American Chestnut hybrids and transplanted them into local parks. A herculean effort for conservationist of all stripes; and successful reintroduction will bring inestimable benefit to the forests of Eastern USA.

[@Bob_Adkins]

Prof Merkle is a good speaker, and he kept my interest throughout! For those worried about the wheat gene: We currently have no chestnut trees. If the wheat gene works, we will. If they all die later, we haven't lost anything. If we replace the American chestnut with hybrids, we have lost the American chestnut forever because the hybrids are not American chestnuts, but chimera international chestnuts.

[@MrVvulf]

Ask Taylor Swift to sing a song about the American Chestnut, all the funding would be taken care of. I do hope the chestnut tree programs are successful and our eastern forests can repopulate. The chestnut is such an important tree for ecology and economy.

[@messagesystem333]

🤣

[@pitchforkrebel5594]

She'd complain how it betrayed her.

[@savage22bolt32]

Who is Taylor Swift?

[@chris3954]

Rumor is she grew up on a PA Xmas tree farm...now her stage show is pushing sorcery and questionable antics to young girls.

[@C.Hawkshaw]

This guy is a good lecturer!

[@glenagarrett4704]

I grew up & moved back to the central VA foothills. We had a chestnut and chinquapin trees still around until the late 1960's. There was a chinquapin grove on our neighbor's property and several trees across from my aunt's house. Chestnuts were scattered around, no goves. We particularly loved the chinquapins and eagerly anticipated chestnuts for Christmas. I've routinely visited those areas over the years and haven't found either live since the early 1970's.

[@Riverguide33]

Fascinating lecture! Thanks for all of your efforts. 👍

[@jimfox8139]

Great discussion and let’s hope with time, money and patience the American Chestnut can make a comeback!! Also, please turn your autofocus off. 😉 Thanks

[@lamarcannon7199]

Thank you Dr. Merkle for sharing. Hope to be able to purchase a blight resistant tree in the near future.

[@rmgibsontx]

An inspiring lecture that brings hope!

[@rooster3019]

Enjoyed the lecture! What prospects can we anticipate for getting the big timber chestnut trees when we have all of this Asian chestnut pollen riding the air currents every bloom season?

[@paleggett1897]

I anxiously await availability of blight resistant trees❣️ We have about a ~40 acre piece in central Ohio

[@joescola7498]

I grew up in Medford MA and Main streer in South Medford had dozens of these giants. It broke my heart when they all became diseased and were cut down one by one. Thank you for this video!

[@vgil1278]

@joescola7498-Do you happen to know the hardiness zones for that area?

[@joescola7498]

Sorry I'm not a biologist of any type but Medford MA used to get a ton of snow when I grew up there.

[@SurfDetector]

Medford, MA is USDA Zone 6B @@vgil1278

[@gkseeton]

This is fascinating.

[@keithstudly6071]

When you are done you can move on to the elm or ash. Beech also seems to have looming trouble.

[@tobyw9573]

Adding a major hardwood species to US evergreen forests and the epidemic diseases that come with mono-forests may help their resistance to evergreen blights.

[@AbbeyRoad69147]

Really needs more public attention.

[@thomasedmondson3585]

I got 20 seeds in peat moss now should be ready in about two months gonna put em in good ground when ready eastern NC

[@whatifitnt]

YAY!!!! Thank You. Such Good news!!!

[@theresacarmen9847]

The best news ive heard for quite a while.

[@stvnwolfe14ESQUIRE]

Fascinating. This makes me miss attending lectures.

[@Dan-bn6om]

Fascinating lecture!

[@user-ub9th6mf9t]

There is a grove of survivors in rouserville pa. Last seen 2018 seemed to be thriving .

[@Biophile23]

Wow It took me halfway through the lecture to realize the presenter is a bit like my academic "uncle". He was a coauthor on several papers with my advisor at UGA. I have been fascinated with restoring the American Chestnut for ages (though more as a hobbyist as I have always lived outside its natural range) but have recently become interested in Butternut (Juglans cinerea), yet another endangered forest tree. In that case it is very interfertile with an Asian species, J. ailanthifolia, Heartnut. Perhaps Dr. Merkle could apply his expertise on somatic embryogenesis to Butternuts as well. Considering the regulatory hurdles with GM trees however, it seems a lot easier to go with hybrids even if they are somewhat inferior from an ecological perspective.

[@howardkanitz4998]

Fantastic presentation! Thank you!

[@billkamp3284]

We had growing up 5 large chestnut trees in the Seattle suburbs. Sold the nuts for 5 cents a lb. Pretty sure they're still there.

[@NYCamper62]

I have about a dozen hybrids including Dunstans on 50 acres. A problem I have with them all is snow. These trees tend to hang onto their leaves. Along comes wet snow, more snow, now the weight brings down fast growing thin branches and sometimes they bend into 2 feet of snow or break.

[@gerrywalsh6853]

Look up advancing eco agriculture he has alot of videos and the way he feeds plants he is getting shorter node space but same plant growth may help with making a stocker tree

[@Reziac]

I have an American Elm that survived the Dutch plague and came back from a stump that does the same thing. As it gets bigger it keeps its leaves longer, and last year it kept them all the whole winter. I expected snow breakage but doesn't seem to bother it any.

[@briandbeaudin9166]

So much great information!

[@gaylerobison9518]

The loss of the AC has been a great American cultural tragedy, so this brilliant research heartens me. As a child in upstate NY in the early 60s, I had the joy of picking and eating chestnuts from a couple of hardy regenerated treelets on an old country lane lined by stone walls dating back to the time when chestnuts grew everywhere. I may not live to see their return to our eastern forests, and I know I will never see any redwood-sized giants. But I am confident that we can achieve that some day with science as our toolbox.

[@fredwild190]

What happens with trees grown from seeds from trees that survived the blight, the trees with an apparent natural resistance, such as the tree in Adair County, Kentucky? Does the blight kill the descendant trees?

[@appaloosa42]

There is at least 1 resistant giant in Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County Western Pennsylvania. The diseased trees were ‘recycled’ into cabins in the park.

[@HillBillyEarl]

Can We Concentrate Known Survivor genes into a pool? Then Work With This Tree?

[@tomyamartino]

Godspeed!

[@paleggett1897]

Thank you. Excellent video

[@benphillips3693]

Excellent lecture!

[@stevenbrenner2862]

Great discussion. There’s hope for the forest.

[@vonhalberstadt3590]

God bless this effort. Don't mess up!

[@JordanCreek1]

Great presentation. Thank you. Very informative. I'm planting some from seed on the Saluda River near Piedmont, SC. Will keep you posted. Got the seeds from some remnants in California.

[@belliott538]

Bring ‘Em Back! Cheers!

[@sharonharrison3611]

I have ate lots of chestnuts. Love them!

[@williamstonesmith7971]

Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Bradford Pear tree which is engineered to be a flowering pear tree has become an invasive species all over the place -

[@johnfitzpatrick3416]

Interesting talk, I grew up an about 1/2 to a mile from Rosa St & Reddy Ave in Hyde Park section of Boston, Ma. I remember there being this huge Chestnut tree on I think Rosa St. If you look across the River St the open lot of grass used to be a playground for kids like myself hence we were done there often back in the 60’s. We would hollow them out after we removed them from the they’re green spikey cover. Hope they return thanks for jogging my memory.

[@ciberbri59]

Fascinating lecture that I could almost understand. It was nice that dr Merkle Merkel? Started with the more easily understood parts of the chestnut drama which played out when my grandmother was born before slowly snowing me under with the genetic science and breeding programs he and others have been attempting. It kind of reminds me of the attempts made to reestablish salmon runs which have been so fruitless ie incredible science that goes nowhere because mother nature has other ideas on the subject. Isn’t there some hope because of the millions of chestnut stumps spawning saplings some of which even create seeds? Maybe Mother Nature will find a way to make fungus resistant tree that has all of the American chestnut’s attributes but with the necessary fungus resistance so we don’t have to create Franken trees in a lab.

[@ciberbri59]

Fond memories of eating roasted chestnuts from a street vendor in Lisbon Portugal. ❤

[@barrybri]

Did you try grafting blight infected wild chestnut stump scion to oxidase oxalate gene rootstock? I planted 4 "American" chestnut trees that a relative gave me about 28 years ago that I assume are hybrids,but the leaves and nuts look like American chestnuts. Two trees grew well with some small signs of blight and produce nuts.Two trees died to the ground after ~5 years and sprouted back from the stumps with stunted growth.

[@Brian-bp5pe]

There was a large chestnut tree around the block from where I grew up in DuPage County, Illinois.

[@Reziac]

Should try planting some out here in the cold west. Black walnuts and horse chestnuts do fine, maybe American Chestnuts would too. (In fact horse chestnuts are like weeds here.) On that note, in my yard here in eastern Montana I have two American Elms that survived the Dutch plague and came back from the stumps. One is super healthy, the other gets the summer crud but survives it.

[@terryrussel523]

OMG. That three drawer chest on the right looks almost exactly like the dry sink bottom I found and restored in Denver, CO. in the 1980's. Two drawers on the top, one large and two swinging doors on the bottom. The top section with small shelves and a large mirror had been removed unfortunately but the hardware, lock plates, (dated locks mid 1800's) drawer pulls . . . We thought it was oak for a long time. (Lost it in the divorce.) SOMEONE gave it away . . .

[@stevehartman1730]

I know where there are several fully mature American Chestnut trees. The house i grew up in had huge beams of it in it.

[@stevehartman1730]

@@Lanedl1 thank u its a good idea thank u.

[@happyhome41]

Fantastic lecture ! Thank you !!! When/where may I order seeds/plants to start repopulating the Chestnut forests ?

[@savage22bolt32]

Where can I get some hybrid seedlings?

[@danlefever6254]

The American Chhestnut Foundation, as a member

[@johne.coughlan6824]

American forest is going to change whether the American chestnut comes back or not. From out side forces.

[@charlespierce5236]

I've noticed ash trees if cut down in the first year of infection flush to the ground will send up fresh sprouts that in our case lived about 6 years and just now are showing reinfection at a height of 15' likewise I had cut down a cancred honey locust 3 times and finally grew back without the cancre appearing

[@aaronweiss5587]

Need something to replace the ash trees

[@vhhawk]

Actual Johnny Appleseed right here (and his team).

[@ryelor123]

Neat. I wish people wouldn't complain about stuff like this. People who want to resurrect the American Chestnut care a lot more about bringing it back than people who like things the way they are care about keeping things the way they are. Not everything is a democracy.

[@geelee1977]

Seems like some serious effort needs to be put into those American Chestnuts you mentioned at the beginning of the lecture, that seemingly are resistant naturally.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

Minnesota has Phil Rutter who did hybrid research at University of Minnesota and then he started Badgersett - I planted a couple dozen chestnut trees - north of their zone but these hybrids are hardy and global warming has changed the growing zone! "More than 8,000 hybrid chestnuts have been screened at Badgersett with 18,000 currently under evaluation." They used to mail them out but their business was research focused. I don't think it's a business anymore - but their research still supplies the trees to other farms.

[@chapter4travels]

Planting based on the revised zones at your own peril, they only changed them to be politically correct.

[@personzorz]

​@@chapter4travelsno

[@buildingwithtrees2258]

The American Chestnut can grow up here. There's a few in Bayfield, WI and one was in Spooner, WI but recently they cut it down to build a parking lot.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@chapter4travels That's why Joseph Fourier published two hundred years ago the science of how "dark heat" (infrared radiation) was increasing on Earth due to the "effects of human industry" - so you could be brainwashed by superficial political views. hahahah.

[@RJ-oe7by]

Does anyone have a handle on the diversity of the wild American Chestnut gene pool? If the Darling 58 were to become successful, we'd could end up with a monoculture with no natural resilience to environmental changes down the road. We'd end up like the banana plantations. This could be worse than brothers marrying sisters as the mature trees are all clones. Somehow, we need to restore the chestnut gene pool even if it means allowing varying degrees of resistance to go out into the wild. I've 2 chestnut plots here in Vt. One 10-yr old Chinese and one 1-yr old American about 500 feet away. I'm hoping for some kind of hybridization to develop. We'll see, as the nursery-bought Chinese stock might very well be vegetative clones.

[@mr.puddles5246]

Darling 58 will require that you plant pure Americans around it to produce your genetic variety.

[@bigDbigDbigD]

I have been waiting my whole life to start plant ing disease resistant Chestnuts

[@DM-wb4jv]

I'm an idiot, but would there be a possibility of finding or culturing a type of mycelium to form a mycorrhizal relationship that you could inoculate the tree root with that could overpower or attack that particular fungus ?! Just a question.

[@DM-wb4jv]

@@energizerwolf5574 I'm just a collision repair man with more interest in other things other than repairing cars, everything from beekeeping to gardening to playing with mycology, outdoors type of endeavors.

[@jerryclark5725]

I my area in Connecticut Chestnuts bloom around 4th of July.

[@CMVBrielman]

3:59 Hah! I knew it. I grew up in the Berkshires (that gap in western MA) and my great grandfather tried to save local chestnut trees, so I knew we must have had them and the map had to be wrong.

[@joeanderson8839]

We have furniture made with American Chestnut.

[@alfredotto7525]

I used to live in ky. Had a American chestnut tree in my front yard. Unfortunately it had the blight that kills chestnut trees.

[@russmitchellmovement]

How far south can a chestnut grow? Because if Texas is an option, I know people willing to help.

[@wcdeich4]

Will the Restoration American Chestnut tree be resistant to root rot as well as bark blight?

[@stumpfarm3714]

No. Blight resistant only.

[@joeanderson8839]

I have a cousin who still owns land passed down through generations that his family got when they won the Georgia land lottery in the 1700s.

[@walterabernathy5663]

There was an old American chest stump not too far from where that Dad's house is. It was big enough for three of us to get inside of it and have fort, Just under 6 ft across

[@catherineparsons20]

My father talks about the chestnut trees in western North Carolina

[@baalbaal]

Sadly resent findings have discovered that the Darling 58 chestnut tree is too problematical and TACF has abandoned it.

[@johnclarke6647]

They did the same thing to the Meyer lemon to make it blight tolerant.

[@mattiasdahlstrom2024]

French beer is not great but the best one - in my mind - is from Corsica and is made of chestnuts!

[@brucec2635]

So ..we have a few American Chestnuts on the farm. We have about twenty-two acres of forest as we call it. Now I know what they are.

[@FrankensteinDIYkayak]

is it immune to the spotted lanternfly?

[@johnclarke6647]

It is called stratification. You have to do the same thing with peach seeds before they will grow.

[@everettarthur6525]

Love the tree- Have followed it for years. The breed back program is just not going to do it. Blight resistance is not a dominate gene passed to off spring. In the wild research showed only 30% of the wild trees getting the gene.

[@somerandomcommenter5823]

Hello, great presentation. Question on the hybrid backcross program. Imagine F1 only gets dominant genes from the Chinese strand... no matter how many times your cross... you'll still get the same result, right? The math makes sense and after six crossing (ref slide 22:35) you'd think you got a 15/16 American, but in my example, you'd still get an F1 like hybrid with 1/2 American. Am I missing something?

[@somerandomcommenter5823]

Never mind... recessive genes are still present... bio classes were a long time ago :)

[@Bob_Adkins]

Producing hybrids is a white flag because they are not American chestnut trees. The wheat gene makes true American chestnut trees that have the same size, shape, lumber characteristics and nuts. Hybrids can go to the devil!

[@jameshudson169]

are those chestnuts they sell in it'ly? then i've had one.

[@macdug1963]

Will chestnuts grow west of the Mississippi river?

[@lynnej7219]

Similar problem in the UK with Dutch elm disease. I think only one small area where they have survived. We are now seeing issues with our oaks and other forest trees. It is very obvious when you drive around. Ash dieback and an insect decimating our conker trees and there is no cure 🙁

[@dwaynekoblitz6032]

I have a few acres of land up here in northern Georgia. How can I get involved??!!

[@WhatWeDoChannel]

I wish someone would do some gorilla gardening with these trees!

[@pmm1044]

Costco sells shelled chestnuts

[@stevereal-]

Never use auto-focus!!!

[@prattacaster]

I was supposed to receive 2 American Chesnut trees from some organization in Nashville, havent got them yet ...

[@mr.puddles5246]

I've got lots. You in the state?

[@fredherbert2739]

A shame what happened with the Darling 58.