What Happened To The American Chestnut Tree ?
The American Chestnut is an indigenous hard wood tree that populated woodlands, mountains and cities in the eastern United States. It is believed to have populated these areas for tens of thousands of years. It was said that a squirrel could travel from New York to Georgia using only the branches of American chestnut trees without ever touching the ground. The chestnuts were a great food source for both humans and animals. The nuts were also gathered and sold or bartered by locals therefore very important to the local economy. The wood was versatile enough to be used in many types of building projects. Around the turn of the last century there was a chestnut tree blight (cryphonectria parasitica) that decimated the species, and caused hardship on humans,animals and insects that depended on it. It was brought to the United States with imported Asian chestnut trees which were immune to it. The devastation is still felt today. It is said that by 1950 about 4 billion trees, occupying 200 m
