As a West Coast native, I wasn't familiar with this rather significant piece of American Natural History, until I started reading The Overstory, by Richard Powers. I highly recommend the book, it features several heartfelt narratives about the various people who have come to this country to start their own 'roots'.
I hope we can help the American Chestnut recover. From the descriptions in the novel above, it must have been quite a beautiful scene to have such large, hearty, majestic trees, dumping bushels of shelf stable food, and of course the beautiful color changes of deciduous trees.
The article goes into some genetic modifications to the chestnut, which is always a wonderfully hot topic. I'm glad to see the technology being used outside of securing corporate profits, but I still fear our hubris can lead to a disastrous outcome in the ecosystem. We're smart, but we're not always good at realizing our limitations.
I hope we can help the American Chestnut recover. From the descriptions in the novel above, it must have been quite a beautiful scene to have such large, hearty, majestic trees, dumping bushels of shelf stable food, and of course the beautiful color changes of deciduous trees.
The article goes into some genetic modifications to the chestnut, which is always a wonderfully hot topic. I'm glad to see the technology being used outside of securing corporate profits, but I still fear our hubris can lead to a disastrous outcome in the ecosystem. We're smart, but we're not always good at realizing our limitations.
Wonderful article, thanks for sharing.