There was a time when the American Chestnut flourished in New Hampshire's forests. Find out where they went at the turn of the century and where they are going today.
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I'm Iain MacLeod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire,and this is Something Wild.
Do our forests look the same as they did one hundred years ago? Of course, back then much of the forest wasn't forest at all: it was farmland. That's why hikers find stone walls deep in what are now woods.
But there's something missing in today's forest: the American Chestnut.
One hundred years ago, the chestnut was the most dominant tree in the Eastern forest. One out every four trees, in fact.
It was not only prevalent, it was popular. It was prized as a shade tree and even more valued for its products. Chestnut wood is light in weight, even grained, rot resistant, and easy to work with. Many a New England barn is framed with chestnut timbers, and it was used for cabinets, crates, and caskets, among many other things. It was also the country's main source of tannin.
And the nuts. They were a source of food for bear, deer, Passenger Pigeons, and a host of other animals. Including ourselves. Don't we sing about chestnuts roasting on an open fire?
But in 1904, the chestnut blight was discovered. Within a single human generation, nearly every chestnut bigger than a sprout had died. Even worse than that, as the blight progressed, people hurried to cut down all the remaining trees. They wanted to slow the spread of the blight and bring whatever was left to market, thereby reducing the possibility of a resistant tree surviving.
All chestnuts are not lost, though. There are still small pockets of chestnuts where the blight has never reached these beautiful trees. And researchers are working with blight-resistant strains so we can plant chestnuts again.
So the chestnut is down, but not out. And maybe, in another century, it will once again be a major part of the New Hampshire forest.
If you have a natural history question that you would like answered on Something Wild, email us at somethingwild@ nhpr.org.
Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod.
