Maryland orchard on quest to restore American chestnut with aid of Chinese cousin

(Baltimore Sun) From the time before English colonization until the dawn of the 20th century, the American chestnut was one of the most magnificent and beneficial trees in Eastern North America. Capable of reaching immense height and thickness, it provided not only food in the form of its nuts but tannin for treating leather and a hardwood prized by furniture-makers and carvers for its straightness and strength. Then, in 1904, chestnuts in New York City were found to be infected by a deadly form of Asian fungus to which the native trees had little resistance. By midcentury, the resulting blight wiped out some 4 billion trees - more than 99 percent of the chestnuts in the Eastern United States, Carver said. Continued

Photo: THIS GHOST FOREST OF BLIGHTED CHESTNUTS ONCE STOOD APPROXIMATELY AT THE LOCATION OF THE BYRD VISITOR CENTER. Skyline Drive (Library of Congress).