Reviving the American chestnut tree
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- July
- 28
They were 100 feet tall and five feet in diameter. The species was a favorite with American colonists and immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Village Blacksmith,� which begins, “Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands.�
But a fungus that arrived from Asia around 1900 devastated the species. By 1950, about 3.5 billion American chestnut trees had been killed, most of them in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The agency’s Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement is now working with the American Chestnut Foundation to bring the species back. They’re planting seedlings at coal mines that were reclaimed under the agency’s oversight throughout Appalachia.
So far, more than 3,000 trees have been planted. Because the reclaimed mine sites are surrounded by forests, the Interior Department said wildlife will spread tree to neighboring forests, allowing nature to repopulate the Alleghenies with the American chestnut.
Learn more about the American chestnut tree.
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on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 7:30 am by Laura Incalcaterra.
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Journal News staff writer Greg Clary writes Earth Watch, reporting on environmental issues in the lower Hudson region. Clary has been a reporter, editor and columnist at the Journal News since 1988 and has covered police and courts, transportation, municipal government, development and the environment in the Lower Hudson Valley, among other topics. 
Laura Incalcaterra covers the environment, open space and zoning and planning issues for The Journal News. A Boston College graduate, Laura grew up in Rockland, attended East Ramapo schools and has worked for The Journal News since 1993. Laura has written features and covered North Rockland, crime, government and a host of other issues.
Mike Risinit covers Patterson and Kent in Putnam County, as well as environmental topics touching on the Hudson River and the Great Swamp. Risinit has been a reporter at The Journal News since 1998.
