PA-TACF
Pennsylvania Chapter
The American Chestnut Foundation
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| HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT |
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The American chestnut tree reigned over 200 million acres of eastern woodlands from Maine to Florida, and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio Valley, until succumbing to a lethal fungus infestation, known as the chestnut blight, during the first half of the 20th century. An estimated 4 billion American chestnuts, 1/4 of the hardwood tree population, grew within this range. In Pennsylvania the density was even higher. Some counties had 40-50% of their timber acreage in American chestnut. 
Natural Range of the American Chestnut
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The American chestnut tree was an essential component of the entire eastern US ecosystem. A late-flowering, reliable, and productive tree, unaffected by seasonal frosts, it was the single most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds. Rural communities depended upon the annual nut harvest as a cash crop to feed livestock. The chestnut lumber industry was a major sector of rural economies. Chestnut wood is straight-grained and easily worked, lightweight and highly rot-resistant, making it ideal for fence posts, railroad ties, barn beams and home construction, as well as for fine furniture and musical instruments.
The blight, imported to the US on Asian chestnut trees, is a fungus dispersed via spores in the air, raindrops or animals. It is a wound pathogen, entering through a fresh injury in the tree's bark. It spreads into the bark and underlying vascular cambium and wood, killing these tissues as it advances. The flow of nutrients is eventually choked off to and from sections of the tree above the infection, killing them.
A promising procedure called backcross breeding was started in the 1980's by the American Chestnut Foundation to breed blight resistant American chestnut trees. The Pennsylvania Chapter is participating by breeding trees adaptable to the Mid-Atlantic Region.
Blight Infestation814-863-7192 phone | mail@patacf.org