Paxtonville man works to revive American chestnuts

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

August 08, 2009 11:02 pm

— PAXTONVILLE — A hundred years ago, an unwanted visitor arrived in Pennsylvania. A lethal fungus, known as the chestnut blight, it hitched a ride from Asia and landed in New York in 1904, moved into Pennsylvania by 1909, and within 40 years, it destroyed the American chestnut tree population.
Today, after years of trying, there is hope that a blight-resistant strain may eventually restore the American chestnut tree to health, though it may never again reach the estimated four billion trees that once grew on 200 million acres from Maine to Georgia and west to the Ohio Valley.

Man plants seedling
A Paxtonville man, Chandis Klinger, who has been taking part in a program by the American Chestnut Foundation since 1983, last week planted a chestnut seedling on his land near the Middleburg American Legion post that may be among the first of the blight-resistant trees.
“We thought it would take 60 years to develop blight-resistant nuts, but we did it in 25 years,” Klinger said. “This is a real milestone.”
The American Chestnut Foundation operates a research facility in Meadowview, Va., where plant biologists and geneticists have been crossing American chestnuts with blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts. In order to maintain the significant characteristics of the American chestnut, the scientists have “back crossed” the trees several times, resulting in a tree with 15/16ths American chestnut genes and 1/16th Chinese genes.

1,000 nuts distributed
This year, the research farm had 1,000 nuts for distribution to interested members of the foundation, like Klinger, to plant and monitor. Each member was allotted five nuts, and Klinger planted his five in half-gallon juice cartons and kept them in his home until they were well sprouted. Two failed to germinate, and another seedling died after it began to grow, leaving him with two healthy seedlings.
Sara Fitzsimmons, a plant biologist with the foundation, came to Klinger’s property to witness the planting of one of the seedlings last week. She was accompanied by Alex Day, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the foundation.
“We have a memorandum of understanding the with U.S. Forest Service,” she said. “We gave them 500 nuts to be planted in national forests in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina.”
She said the forest service provides some funding for chestnut research.

15-year outlook
“The sixth generation (of nuts) appears to be blight resistant,” she said. “But it will take 15 years or more before we know. There is a very limited supply of nuts now since it takes trees 5 to 10 years to produce nuts.”
During the research at Meadowview and at a more recently established orchard at Penn State, growing seedlings are injected with the blight fungus to gauge their resistance.
Day noted the American chestnut was once one of the largest trees in the forest, often growing to 100 feet or more and up to six feet in diameter. The tree was an important part of the ecosystem in the Appalachians, since the tree provided a large, reliable annual crop of nuts that provided food for various game animals. In addition, the nuts were harvested to feed domestic animals and people.
Chestnut lumber also was an important product, since it was very insect-resistant, straight-grained and light in weight.
“It was used for railroad ties, utility poles, buildings and furniture,” he said. Many surviving log cabins were made of chestnut logs, and chestnut utility poles set over 100 years ago still are serviceable today. The ornate wood wainscoting and trim found in many Victorian homes was milled from chestnut, as was a great deal of Victorian furniture.

‘Chestnut ghosts’ still stand
In fact, Day said, in the southern Appalachian Mountains, huge chestnuts killed by the blight 75 years ago still stand, bleached white by weather and known as “chestnut ghosts.” In Pennsylvania, he noted, diseased chestnuts were cut down and burned in an effort to contain the blight, so few “ghosts” remain here.
“People are in love with chestnut trees,” Day said. “We’re enlisting people’s memories.”
Every town had its Chestnut Street, and the chestnut is celebrated in poetry and song, he said.
Klinger has been experimenting with American chestnut trees since 1984, trying to come up with a successful method of planting them on his land. Squirrels, deer and bears have an appetite for the nuts, he said, and when he planted them, they often were dug up before they sprouted. He tried protecting them by planting them under a large tin can with a hole punched in the top for the shoot to pass through, but bears would simply knock the can out of the way. He also tried fertilizers with deer repellent, but the results were spotty at best.
Of the 400 to 500 nuts he’s planted, Klinger admits, not many have survived.

Two seedlings in ground
Last year, he sold some timber off his property, and last week, in an area now open to the sky, he planted his two surviving seedlings. He’s figured out that chestnuts may need more sunlight to thrive, so he’s mounting this experiment.
He peeled the orange juice carton away from the soil holding the seedling, and kneeling on the ground, almost reverently placed the seedling in the ground. He carefully refilled the hole, leaving a small depression around the stem. He poured water into the depression.
“I think that will hold some water when it rains,” he said.
Day suggested he place a few rocks around the seedling, explaining that the rocks will absorb heat from the sun and keep the soil and the seedling warmer.
Then Klinger picked up a basket of woven wire fencing about four feet high and four feet in diameter. He placed it carefully over the seedling. Later, he would stake it down, he said, to keep deer from nibbling on the leaves.

Time-consuming project
He pointed out another seedling nearby that he had planted in a tangle of limbs left from the logging. His theory was that deer wouldn’t disturb the seedling because they would be unable to reach it through the tangled limbs, which they would have trouble seeing.
“This is all very time consuming, but it’s worth it,” he said.
Fitzsimmons said the research completed by the foundation’s scientists may help as other scientists begin to seek solutions for a variety of pests attacking other trees in America’s forests. Hemlock, beech and ash species are all under siege by imported pests.
“This work could be a model for other species,” she said. “It could be vital in leading the way.”
Some of Klinger’s chestnuts are 35 to 40 feet tall, he said, and they have begun to produce nuts. He’s been watching them for signs of the blight, hoping against hope that they can survive.
At 70, Klinger, a retired Air Force colonel, is well aware that he may not see this experiment to its conclusion. Nevertheless, he continues his efforts.
An ancient Greek proverb says it all: a society grows great when men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit.

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