The Ghost Tree: Bringing Back the American Chestnut

The Ghost Tree: Bringing Back the American Chestnut

Billions of American chestnut trees once shaped life in Appalachia, but a foreign fungus erased them in a matter of decades. Today, only sickly sprouts remain — ghosts of a vanished ecosystem. Sara Fern Fitzsimmons and The American Chestnut Foundation are racing to breed resistance and restore the tree's ecological role. It’s slow, painstaking work — but it may hold the key to revival.

Upper Valley conservationists hope to bring back the American chestnut

Valley News  reported New London conservationists are eagerly awaiting the first nuts from their crop of about 100 American chestnut trees, as their counterparts in Grantham embark on a similar adventure to preserve the so-called “redwoods of the East.” Read more  Valley News – Upper Valley conservationists hope to bring back the American chestnut