Maine’s Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) has partnered with the Maine Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation conducting research to bring back forest chestnut trees.
“We have a huge bear population and a growing wild turkey population that rely heavily on nut-bearing trees to get through the winter,” Central Aroostook SWCD Executive Director Randy Martin said. “They are forced to look for sustenance in areas they would not otherwise.”
Residential areas have been hit with wildlife tearing down feeders and storming through landscapes in search of food. “As the wildlife goes into winter with inadequate fat reserves, some have not made it through to the following spring,” Martin said.
The district teamed up with The American Chestnut Foundation to combat Cryphonectria parasitica, the blight disease that attacks and kills the trees. Armed with about 30 chestnut seedlings, the district began working on the seedlings to clone for blight resistance. The district’s efforts have prompted the Maine Chapter of the Foundation to donate another 300 seedlings.
“We’re really very excited,” Martin said. “The American chestnut has been almost obliterated. If we can pull these trees through, then after this winter we’ll have enough clones that we can partner with other districts and other states to distribute the resistant clones.”
In the early 1900s, the North Atlantic Coast boasted more than four billion chestnut trees. Cryphonectria parasitica was introduced in New York from chestnut seedlings carried from China. The blight spread like wildfire, killing nearly all of the chestnut trees, some had 10-foot circumferences. Today, there are very few nut-producing trees in the entire area.
Martin and Maine Forester Ethan Hill are using explants from nut-bearing native trees and four hybrid clones that were developed by crossing the American chestnut and the Chinese chestnut, which is resistant to the blight.
Like the district’s Neonectria-resistant American beech tree project, Martin is working on establishing a basal medium so that he can determine the optimum growth regulators for the best results. Tissue collections will be cultured and grown in the lab. When the clones reach six-feet tall, they will be planted in trials and monitored.