The American Chestnut: Tragedy, legend, salvation through GMO technology

The very essence of the American Chestnut is one of tragedy and possible salvation from the dirty little phrase GMO.  The once mighty King of the American forest of the eastern United States was all but decimated by 1960, with a few small stands in Maine, Pennsylvania, New York and southern Appalachia.  The tree was once the very essence of Americana, used as lumber, a food source, honey and by-products such as tannin for leather production and silk dying.  Furniture, homes, barrels, railroad ties and fences.  American Chestnut was the tree of everyday lives.

American Chestnut Blight in Adams, MA.

It was not devastated from over-harvesting, clear cutting or other indiscriminate lumbering processes, it was however destroyed at the hands of man, unknowingly.  It was with the introduction of the American Chestnuts cousin, the Chinese Chestnut that was its demised.  Early in the 19th century Chinese Chestnut was imported to the US as an ornamental addition to urban landscapes.  Unknown was that the Asian cousin carried a fungus that it was genetically immune to and in 1904 it was first identified at the Bronx Zoo, called the Chestnut blight.  Within 50 years almost 4 billion American Chestnut trees had been killed in over 200 million acres of eastern forests.

These once titans, stood 100 feet tall and 10 feet  in diameter were reduced to a few feet tall and certain to die within the first 10 years from the fungus, which attacks the bark and girdle the tree causing it to die, usually within a year of being infected.  Sadly there has been no way to kill the fungus.

The importance of the American Chestnut is often over shadowed by it's benefits to humans but it's importance in the forest should be looked at as well.  They are a fast growing tree, able to bear fruit (nuts) in the first 3 to 7 years, and they continue to do so consistently, unlike its sister, the Oak which will not bear fruit for at least 10 years and they do so inconsistently, making them an unreliable food source for wildlife, and commercial harvest.  The tree is a biomass master.  It contains more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium in its leaves when compared to other trees that share its habitat. This means they return more nutrient to the soil which helps with the growth of other plants, animals, and microorganisms

Despite its decimation as a lumber and nut-crop species, the American chestnut has not gone extinct. The species has survived by sending up stump sprouts that grow vigorously in logged or otherwise disturbed sites, but inevitably succumb to the blight and die back to the ground. The most recent USDA Forest Service survey for New York State indicates that there may be as many as 60 million of these sprout clumps in New York State, a rich gene pool for starting a restoration effort.

In the early 80's the USFS, USDA, and the State University of NY College of Environmental Science and Forestry quietly began working on making the American Chestnut something more that the scrub shrub it had been reduced to and as of today there are more than 10 other organization working to return the American Chestnut to it's place as the King of Tree's.

How is that happening?  Through genetic modification of the American Chestnut.  Currently all test stocks (none have been planted outside of test areas) they consist of 1-2% Chinese Chestnut DNA to the 98-99% American Chestnut DNA, all of this is through what make many cringe, GMO processing techniques, backcrossing as it is commonly called.  By backcrossing the American chestnut with Asian chestnuts (which are naturally immune to the blight), the goal is to create an American chestnut that is blight-resistant but almost completely American, with all the strong qualities of the majestic trees of a century ago.  Some might argue that backcrossing is not creating a GMO, but in literal term it is and backcrossing is a processes farmers and gardeners alike have used for ever.  Officially it is estimated that professionally backcrossing started  about 1918.

So hopefully within the next 5 years we will see the first reintorduction of Blight resistant American Chestnut, but it may not be in our life time that we will ever seen the forest filled again with the King of America, the American Chestnut.