October 28, 2025

American Chestnut (Castanea dentata). Once abundant in its native range of the eastern United States, principally in the Appalachian Mountains.

It was at what is now the Bronx Zoo, in the borough of The Bronx, New York City, that the Chestnut Blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) was first discovered in 1904, by 1906 it was estimated that 98 percent of the American Chestnut trees in that borough had been infected.

Today there are very few mature examples of these Chestnut trees surviving in their native range. On rare occasions I see a tree that has been attacked by the blight. Most often the tree will die but the root system will survive to sent up new shoots. This will create a small tree that will repeatedly succumb to the blight and send up new shoots. I have a couple that are doing this here near my cabin. The result of my planting pure American Chestnut burrs.

Scientists have been working on this problem and I’m hoping one of these days they will come up with an answer.

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