The woodland in my backyard on the outskirts of Decatur now has a new distinction — the home of two American chestnut trees, planted there last week by my forestry friend, Dale Higdon.
The trees — or I should say seedlings, since they’re only about a foot high — came from the Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation (tacf.org). The foundation’s goal is to develop a blight-resistant chestnut tree through scientific research and breeding, and restore the once grand tree to its native forests in the eastern United States.
After my seedlings were planted and protective wire cages placed around them, Higdon, a retired forester, reminded me that my backyard now is a special place — one of few yards in all of North America harboring chestnut trees.
Metal tags attached to each of the seedlings contain a unique identification code. The IDs will become part of a database maintained by Martin Cipollini, a Berry College biologist in Rome and science coordinator of the foundation’s state chapter. The database keeps track of its chestnut trees that have been planted in Georgia.
Helping Higdon plant the chestnuts were our mutual friends Clayton Webster, Hank Ohme and Ricky Ammons. “Grow strong, little trees,” we uttered after the seedlings were planted.
Indeed, the hope is that these little seedlings will somehow, some way, escape the deadly blight spread by an exotic fungus that first appeared in the 1900s. At that time, the American chestnut was the most important tree found in the forests of the eastern U.S., including the vast forests of North Georgia. Its nuts were important for wildlife and human consumption.
Chestnut trees grew to more than 100 feet tall and numbered in the billions. But by the 1950s, the blight had all but wiped out the magnificent tree.
But, who knows? Maybe my chestnut seedlings will survive and indeed grow big and strong, and my children and grandchildren may one day be able to roast a bushel of chestnuts “on an open fire” for Thanksgiving.
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be last quarter on Friday (Feb. 2). Mercury is low in the east just before sunrise. Venus rises out of the east a few hours before sunrise. Mars is very low in the east just before dawn. Jupiter is high in the south at sunset. Saturn is in the west at dusk.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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