Restoring the American Chestnut Tree in Our Forests

Trees are a critical component to our natural ecosystem and environment. Not only do they produce oxygen that all humans need to breathe, but depending on the type of tree they also give us nuts and fruit. Now what would happen if those same trees were affected by a disease that wiped out much of its population and brought the tree to the brink of extinction? This is exactly what has happened to the American Chestnut tree. In response to this danger, professors from SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry are working to prevent its extinction by developing a new version of the tree that is blight resistant.

The American Chestnut tree is invaluable within the forest as it produces some very valuable resources such as nuts for wildlife and human consumption and a lumber that is rot resistant. Once a dominant tree in the Eastern United States forests, it accounted for 25% of trees in the forest. This is a major factor in why it is critical to save it. The trees are being infected by blight, which is a plant disease that causes browning, then death of plant tissues like leaves, branches, and floral organs. The blight doesn’t kill the root of the tree which allows it to still sprout above ground; however a canker forms in the trunk of the tree which prevents nutrients from spreading. This in turn causes the tree to die.

SUNY ESF’s Dr. William Powell and Dr. Charles Maynard have been working for 25 years to find a solution to this dire problem. They have found that by extracting a gene from wheat that builds resistance to the pathogen in blight they can in turn genetically modify the American Chestnut tree to have the same resistance trait. This was a long, tedious process, as they tried 30 different genes and had to wait for a tree to grow large enough to be tested for blight resistance. That piece of the process alone can take at least a full year.

Now that they have developed the blight resistant trees, the trees must go through a couple of government agencies for regulatory review before they can be planted again in the wild. Hopefully this new blight resistant American Chestnut tree will then begin to thrive and bring the tree back to its former glory.

Learn more about the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at SUNY ESF.