Essay on Chestnut Blight and American Chestnut Trees

Chestnut Blight and American Chestnut Trees Since the early 1900s a disease known as Chestnut Blight has infected many American Chestnut trees and causing their removal from forests. A greater look at the history of this fungus as well as the mechanisms of action will allow us to learn on how to preserve the American chestnut. At one point, the American chestnut was virtually eliminated. With the help of government acts and conservation agencies, the American chestnut is slowly growing back in population. Two methods of restoration of the chestnut include a hybridization and the use of hypovirulant strains. This issue shows a variety of interest from ecologists to those in the timber industry who cannot lumber Asian species of chestnut†¦show more content†¦Chestnut wood is highly resistant to rot and used extensively for poles, fencing and building materials. Formerly known as Endothia parasitica, Cryphonectria parasitica enters the wound, grows in and under the bark and eventually kills the cambium all the way around the twig or bush. Blight does not affect the root system, so the ones that do survive, survive as shrubs. There is, however, no significant wild production from these shrubs. Breeding projects are underway to combine the nut quality and timber. (Anagnostakis WWW). Although currently imported Chinese chestnuts are healthy producers of good nuts, they cannot replace our native chestnut because the Chinese tree is an orchard tree, while the American chestnut creates huge tracts of big timber (ACF WWW). Overall, it is important to understand how blight works to further help protect the trees against it. Blight is a Castanea Disease which has eliminated American Chestnut Trees from landscape. This disease causes cankers on the branches then moves into the trunk and thus kills the tree. Currently, there is no chemical control for this disease. Resistance to Endothia parasitica has come from a fungus which makes Asiatic chestnut trees resistant to blight (Castanea Disease WWW). Pycnidia are tiny, orange spore-cases that characterize spreading chestnut blight. This disease has killed 4 billion chestnuts. * The fungus that causes chestnut blight invadesShow MoreRelatedThe Spread Of The Blight995 Words   |  4 Pages4 billion trees had died as a result of the pathogen. The spread of the blight continued with approximately over a million trees dying each year. Going forward to the mid-20th century, Castanea dentata is almost extinct in American forests. The blight infection has prevented the American chestnut ability to grow to its full height, and only exist as shrubs that sprout from trees that were infected with the blight. 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