Tag: Chestnut blight

SRS Releases American Chestnut Course

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was an iconic tree that is now functionally extinct. For a hundred years, researchers from multiple organizations have been working to restore this tree. A free online course – An Introduction to the American Chestnut – is now available. The course covers chestnut taxonomy, silvics, historical importance, ecology, and its…  More 

Working Together Towards Chestnut Restoration

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
On November 3, about forty people from the USDA Forest Service and The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) gathered virtually. It was the second biennial plan of work meeting between TACF and SRS. Since the 1990s, the two organizations have worked together on American chestnut (Castanea dentata) restoration. In 2017 and in 2019, they committed to…  More 

American Chestnuts in the Field

by Sarah Farmer, SRS Science Communications  • 
By the 1950s, two non-native pathogens had killed almost all American chestnut trees. “There’s a lot of interest in breeding a chestnut that looks like American chestnut with the disease resistance of Chinese chestnut,” says U.S. Forest Service research forester Stacy Clark. “However, there hasn’t been much research on reintroducing disease-resistant trees to the forest.”…  More 

Chestnut Blight

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Chestnut blight, the disease that decimated the American chestnut trees of the eastern U.S. in the early 1900s, is mainly caused by Cryphonectria parasitica, a member of the largest group of fungi, the ascomycetes (sac fungi). C. parasitica enters through wounds and cracks in chestnut bark, causing dead areas on bark called cankers. Once introduced, the…  More